Life is Abominable
by Shinigamilover2
Summary: (AU and crossover with Life is Strange) One year after the destruction of Arcadia Bay, Max and Chloe decide on taking a vacation to China for some relaxation time. But little did they know that part of their trip would be helping a young Yeti get home to his family, and Max finds herself using her Rewind powers once again. Rated T for some minor language, blood, and minor violence.
1. Foresight: Part 1

**A/N: I can't get over how much I am in love with both Abominable and the first Life is Strange game. I love the characters and the stories of both the movie and the game, so I figured this would be an amazing opportunity to cross the two over. So, I'm going to let everyone know now that this story contains spoilers to both Abominable and Life is Strange, just throwing that out there. Now, let's begin shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Strange..._

_Mysteriously gifted with the power to rewind time, young photography student Max Caulfield became entangled of the dark secrets of Arcadia Bay. She used her strange new abilities to reconnect with her oldest friend, Chloe Price, and to bring to justice the men who had murdered Chloe's closest confidante, Rachel Amber. Max's temporal abilities came at a cost, however, creating a once-in-a-generation hurricane that threatened the town with total destruction, if Max didn't allow the original timeline - in which Chloe died of a gunshot wound - to play out. In one sequence of events, Max chose to save Chloe's life, sacrificing Arcadia Bay. And in a multiverse of infinite possibilities, this is one version of what happened next..._

_-Taken from the prologue to the graphic novel, "Life is Strange: Dust"_

* * *

Cold, that was the only word Max could describe how she felt right now, absolutely freezing. She had opened her eyes to reveal she was somewhere she totally didn't recognize. A large wooden bridge out in the middle of a snowy mountain range, and icy winds howled as they blew past her. The low temperatures gave her goosebumps on her skin, which wasn't surprising considering her clothing wasn't exactly appropriate for an icy climate.

"What the Hell? What is this place?" Max asked herself as she looked around. The winds grew stronger when she saw behind her was a dark gray-painted military helicopter with a spotlight pointed directly at her. Max then saw large armored trucks block off both ends of the bridge, and several people wearing SWAT armor holding weapons exited said vehicles.

"Don't let them escape!" Max heard one of them yell. She was absolutely terrified and confused at the same time. She put her hands up when she saw that they were all now pointing their weapons at her. A short elderly man using a pick-ax for a cane was standing in front of one of the armed convoys, and right next to him was a red-haired woman wearing a white trench-coat and maroon teardrop shaped eyeglasses.

"We have to take the shot, sir. Right now" Max heard the woman say in a British accent. The ice on the bridge then began to rumble underneath Max's feet, and the convoys started to take notice of this as well. Max then looked up and saw a large silhouette of a creature she didn't recognize. The creature began to emit a large blue-green aura around it's body and started to emit a deep humming sound. The aura then grew larger and larger, until it came out from the creature's body like a massive shock-wave of energy. The energy was enough to sent the Helicopter spiraling out of control, as well as start a massive snow storm around the bridge area, almost as if it was creating a barricade on both ends of the bridge to prevent anyone else from crossing.

"No way. What is that thing? How's it even doing that?" Max whispered to herself as she watched the creature fend off the armed convoys. Her attention then turned to the helicopter on her left, and saw that the snow storm and the energy blast was causing it to lose all power in it's engine, and tilted to the side as it crashed on the bridge's wooden surface. The propeller had sliced through two of the large cables that held the bridge up before crashing on impact and creating a massive explosion. Max then shut her eyes tight and covered her face as the ever-growing explosion made it's way towards her.

* * *

**Los Angeles, California**

"Woah!" Max shouted as she woke up to find she was back where she was before. Inside a small diner in Los Angeles, where she and her longtime best friend, Chloe Price had moved after the destruction of Arcadia Bay, their hometown in Oregon. She was gasping lightly as she just woke up, taking in her surroundings. Max was also still wearing the same clothes she had on in the dream, a gray tee-shirt with a skull and crossbones with the word "Goonies" right above it, and ripped black skinny jeans from Hollister with gray converse all-stars on her feet.

"That... was really trippy" said Max. She then recalled the last time she had a dream that felt so real, it was of the storm that destroyed Arcadia Bay and ripped it to shreds.

"Calm down, Max. It was only a dream" Max told herself as she was starting to calm down. She didn't want to think about having to use her powers again just so another one of her freakish nightmares could become reality again. Ever since the storm, Max swore off using her ability to travel back in time, or as she and Chloe called it, "Rewind", forever. Max feared that if she ever tried using her powers again, another storm could happen and take the lives of millions of innocents, and decided to let fate play itself out from now on whenever it came to regular everyday events.

"Max Caulfield?" she heard a voice ask. She looked up to see a young man with an emo-style haircut that reminded her a lot of Zac Efron's hair back in his "High School Musical" days, and wearing a white tank top, faded dark blue jeans, and a lot of punk-themed jewelry. She figured Chloe would get along with this guy famously.

"Oh, yeah. Chris, right? Chris Turnbull?" Max asked politely as she stood up and held her hand out to shake.

"Yeah, that's me. Good to finally meet you" Chris said as he took his hand into her's and firmly shook it. The two then sat down at the booth close to the window and began to discuss business.

"Thank you so much for coming over by the bar the other night and taking photos of our band. We feel like we could really a lot more venues with pictures like these on our website" Chris told her. A short while after moving to LA, Max started her own Freelance Photographer for hire business after Chloe had suggested the idea to her. After creating a website for the business using a service she heard about on YouTube and put up some fliers all over town, Max had been getting lots of interesting and high-paying customers who wanted her to take their photos.

"It's no problem at all. I'm just hoping you'll like them" Max said as she looked down to her left and picked up a large bulky yellow-orange envelope and handed it to Chris, whom then opened it up and reached inside. Chris then began looking at a grand total of twenty photographs, each one was taken masterfully and a lot of detail was caught in them all.

"Oh wow. These are amazing. I don't think even Taylor Swift has a personal photographer as good as you" Chris complimented as Max watched him look through all the photos.

"It's no problem at all, Chris. And I'd like to think Taylor Swift would practically BEG me to be her personal photographer if I'm really as good as you say I am" Max said with a light chuckle at the end.

"Hey, no need to be so modest, Max. I think these pictures could really impress a lot of people who'd want to book us for a venue or two" Chris complimented. Max then took out her old schoolbag and took out twenty slides of Polaroid Spectra film. The photos were the exact same ones as the pictures she had just handed Chris.

"Instant film? I thought you used a Nikon camera?" Chris asked, a little on the confused side.

"I do, but that's my business camera. This is my "For Fun" camera" Max said as she pulled out the Polaroid Spectra One-Switch camera that Chloe had given her as a belated birthday present the day they reunited back in Arcadia Bay. Chris took one into his hand and analyzed it closely.

"Wow, Polaroid or Nikon you are a master at your craft, Ms. Caulfield" Chris told her.

"Thanks. A lot of people seem to think so too. And don't worry, I'm not charging you for those photos, I just took those for myself and put them on the wall in my bedroom. That's where all the best of the best photos I take go" Max explained.

"That's actually really sweet of you. Thanks, I'm flattered" Chris said.

"Don't mention it" Max replied. Chris then took out a white envelope out of his front right pocket that had been folded in half and placed it right on the table.

"Here you go. The email said all the photos you took would cost about three hundred dollars right?" asked Chris.

"Yeah. I hope it's a reasonable enough price for the photos. If not, I'm more than willing to make a new one with you if you'd like" Max offered.

"What? No no no. The photos are excellent, and the price is fine too. We just added an additional two hundred in there because we really liked the sample photos you sent in the email. Think of it as our way of saying thank you for taking our pictures" Chris told her.

"Wow, that's very generous of you" Max said before placing her hand on top of the envelope and slid over towards her. She then took the money out and began counting it to make sure everything was there.

"Yeah, it's all there. Five hundred, like you said. Pleasure doing business with you. And I hope the band does well" Max said after putting the money in her pocket and stood up to shake Chris' hand once again.

"Same to you. Have a good day" he said before leaving the diner and walked into the busy Los Angeles streets. Max then sat back down at her table and put her Polaroid photos and Polaroid camera back into her bag as she noticed a coffee shop employee came over with a large serving tray.

"Alright, miss. I got your coconut pancakes and apricot plum smoothie with wildflower honey right here" said the waiter as he set the plate out right in front of her and the glass soon followed.

"Thank you. Can I also get a refill on my coffee?" asked Max as she held her empty mug up to him.

"Absolutely, miss. I'll be right back with your coffee. In the meantime, enjoy your meal" he said before walking back behind the counter to fetch the coffee pot. Max then began to cut into the pancakes and began to eat. As the sweet taste of coconut shreds filled her taste-buds, Max couldn't help but wonder if her vision could really come true regardless of whether or not she decided to quit using the Rewind.

"Yo, Mad Max! There you are!" said a familiar voice. Max looked up and smiled to see it was Chloe Price, her best friend from childhood walking up to her booth in the diner. Chloe was wearing her favorite black beanie over her aqua blue colored hair, along with a slightly baggy white tank-top with a black Illuminati pyramid symbol on the front, which allowed her tattoo on her right arm to be fully exposed, and she also wore black jeans and combat boots.

"So, I take it the transaction went smoothly?" Chloe asked as she sat down across from her friend.

"More than smooth, actually. He really loved the photos, and not to mention, they paid me FIVE HUNDRED. The additional two hundred they gave was a tip just for me" Max told her excitedly. Chloe's face lit up brightly like a kid who just got what she wanted for Christmas.

"No freaking way, Max that is just awesome" Chloe told her.

"I know. We almost have enough money for our trip to China" Max replied. The two friends have been planning a trip to China for about a few months now. It was considered to be a trip for some much earned rest and relaxation from their social and work lives in California, not to mention it's one of the places they've been wanting to see together for a while now.

"Actually, we DO have enough money for our trip to China" Chloe corrected her.

"Do? What's that supposed to mean?" Max asked confused. Chloe then reached into her pocket and pulled out a freshly-written check for one thousand five hundred dollars.

"Chloe, are you serious right now? One thousand five hundred? How did you even get that?" Max asked with shock and excitement filling her voice.

"The museum of arts in San Francisco loved the painting. I guess it was love at first sight or something, because the moment they saw it they were like 'We hella want this in our museum', so they asked me how one thousand give hundred sounded and I was all like 'You got yourself a deal broskis' and I watched as the wrote the thing on our coffee table, Max. It was so incredible!" Chloe said. Max was so excited when she heard Chloe told the story. Since she and Max came to LA, Chloe had put her art skills to good use and began creating different types of artwork and selling them to museums and art collectors who were very fold of the type of art style she created.

"So we're really going to China?" Max asked.

"We're SO hella going to China!" Chloe replied. Max's smile then began to fade away and Chloe noticed.

"Come on Max, at least ACT like you're excited" Chloe said, nudging Max's shoulder to try and get her to smile again.

"No, I am excited Chloe. It's just that..." she said but paused in mid-sentence.

"But what? Spit it out, Max. Don't leave me dangling in suspense here" Chloe urged. Max then took a deep breath and then she began to tell her what was bothering her.

"Well, you remember those visions I kept having about the storm that destroyed Arcadia Bay? I had another one" confessed Max. This made Chloe very worried and want to know more.

"What? Is another storm coming? I thought you said you were going to stop rewinding and reality jumping" Chloe pressed Max further.

"I did. And no, it wasn't of any storm" she reassured her blue haired friend.

"No storm? Then what was in the vision?" asked Chloe.

"I was on this bridge. It was really really cold, I'm talking snow and ice everywhere. And the bridge was somewhere in this giant mountain range covered in snow. There were these guys wearing all black SWAT suits holding guns up at me, and there was also a helicopter too. Then I saw something standing on the very top of the bridge's arch" Max explained. Chloe was very invested in this story, and wanted to know even more.

"Keep going. I got a feeling there's more to this vision" said Chloe.

"Yeah. I couldn't really see what it was, but it emitted this aura from it's body and it was making this deep humming noise. It caused the winds to grow stronger, the helicopter started spinning out of control, not to mention it created a snow storm. The helicopter crashed and the explosion came directly towards me. I woke up after that" Max concluded her story.

"And did it feel every bit as real as your tornado vision?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah. And there's something else that's troubling me" Max added.

"What might that be?" the blue haired girl asked.

"I'm not entirely sure if this is going to come true whether I start using my powers again or not" said Max. Chloe then placed her hand on top of Max's and squeezed it tightly to reassure her that everything was going to be fine.

"I will say, that does sound hella scary. But, you need to know that regardless if this happens regardless if you continue to never use your powers or not, I will always be there to help you figure it out" Chloe said in a very comforting and reassuring manner. Max smiled knowing Chloe always had her back regardless of what was happening, this is why they were such amazing friends.

"Thanks, Chloe. So, we going to be packing for China as soon as we get back to the apartment?" Max asked, her smile reappearing on her face.

"There's that dorky smile I missed so much. Yeah, we should start packing as soon as we get home. We're going to pack lots of clothes since we're going to be there for half a month" said Chloe excitedly.

"I also got a notification on my Amazon app saying the six packs of Polaroid film I ordered's being delivered today. So I'll have plenty of film for the trip too" Max added. The two continued to talk about the trip the remainder of their stay at the diner until they went back to pack for the trip and buy their tickets for their flight to China.

* * *

**A/N: That's chapter one of "Life is Abominable" everybody! I hope everyone had a great time reading this chapter even though we haven't exactly gotten to China yet, or got to meet Everest and the others yet. But now we do know Max has given up using her powers, living her dream of being a professional photographer, and having visions of something she can't explain. But what is the meaning of these new visions? You'll find out very soon. Please review, thanks!**


	2. Foresight: Part 2

**A/N: Well hey everyone! I hope everyone's ready for the newest update of "Life is Abominable"! Because here it is! Once again, I will remind everyone that this story contains spoilers for Abominable and Life is Strange. So, anyone who wants to play the game, or see the movie, or both before reading any further, I respect your choice. Those of you who want to read regardless, thanks for continuing to read! Now let's keep on going with the story, shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After the destruction of Arcadia Bay, Max Caulfield and Chloe Price have moved to Los Angeles, the city where Rachel Amber always dreamed of going to start a new life, in order start a new life together. Max has started her own professional photographer for hire business and has sworn of using her gift to rewind time permanently. Chloe has been successful as well, becoming an artist and selling her artworks to whoever paid the most like museums and art galleries. Just as Max begins having bizarre new visions of the silhouette of a monster on a bridge in the middle of a snowy mountain range, the duo have enough money saved up for a trip to China. But, little did Max and Chloe know that this was the beginning of something much bigger for both of them..._

* * *

**Los Angeles, California. 9:23 PM**

Max had just finished packing her duffel bag after inserting the last outfit in her closet she wanted to pack. It was the outfit that belonged to Rachel Amber that she had left with Chloe back in her old bedroom in Arcadia Bay before she disappeared. Max then zipped the bag up before walking into the living room and set it next to the coffee table, where Chloe's bags were resting.

"You finish packing everything you want?" Chloe asked as she took a plate of leftover pizza from a nearby pizza place out of the microwave and set it on the kitchen island next to a tall glass of Coca-Cola.

"Not yet. I wanna save packing my toothbrush, toothpaste, all that hygienic crap for before we leave. I don't wanna have to repack it after I need to reuse it for getting ready" Max told her.

"Smart idea. And you got your camera and film too?" asked Chloe.

"Yup. More than enough for the entire trip" Max answered as she sat next to Chloe at the kitchen island and began eating the pizza Chloe had just warmed up for her. Chloe then walked over to the fridge and put the last slice of pizza in the box on a plate for herself and began warming it up.

"So Max, anymore visions of that monster thing?" Chloe asked her friend while waiting for her food to heat.

"Nope, thankfully. But I still can't get that image out of my head. It's almost like a scene from a really bad movie playing on repeat in my brain" Max replied.

"You sure you don't remember what that thing looked like?" the blue haired girl asked.

"It was just a silhouette, all black. I couldn't even make out one detail of the thing" Max said just as the microwave finished reheating Chloe's pizza.

"Gotta say, Max. This has to be hella more ominous than your tornado vision" Chloe told her as she took out the pizza as well as a glass to fill with ice and a Dr. Pepper.

"You're not kidding. I don't even want to think about using my powers again. A lot of people got killed because of me, and it's troubling to think about this happening regardless of if I start rewinding again" Max replied. Chloe then let out a rather quiet sigh and placed her hand on Max's shoulder before she gently get somewhat firmly gripped it for reassurance.

"Don't worry. Like I said before, I'll be with you to figure it out if and when it comes true" Chloe told her. Max's iPhone then began to ring. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked on the screen to see it was Kate Marsh, her classmate and friend from Arcadia Bay who had evacuated the town with her family the day the storm wiped the town out.

"It's Kate. Mind if I take this?" Max asked as she stood up.

"No, not at all. Don't take too long though or your pizza's gonna get cold" Chloe answered.

"Reheat it for me if it does though?" the brown haired girl asked.

"Always" Chloe replied simply. Max then dragged her thumb across the bottom of the screen and placed the device up to her ear.

"Hey, Kate" answered Max.

"Hey, yourself, Max. It's been a while and I just wanted to catch up" Kate replied from the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I've had a lot of clients lately" Max said as she went into the master bedroom she and Chloe shared and shut the door behind her.

"I bet. The business must be doing pretty good huh?" asked Kate.

"Yeah. I've been using a digital camera for work and began using my little instant camera for fun nowadays" Max told her.

"Regardless, the photos I saw on your website look amazing. I actually recommended you to my parents to take our picture for this year's Christmas card" Kate told her. Max smiled at this, even after all that happened, Kate was still a loyal friend to the end.

"Wow, that's so sweet of you, Kate. Since we're friends I may give you a special discount, slash the price right in half" Max offered.

"That would be great, Max. I know my family will be appreciative too" Kate replied.

"No problem. How's Warren?" asked Max. Warren was another one of Max's classmates from Blackwell Academy who survived the storm, but was injured with a broken leg and several glass shards lodged in his side and his arm.

"His leg's doing okay but the doctors said those glass shards in his arms damaged his nerves more badly than they thought. He'll be going into surgery next week to hopefully resolve the problem and he can start using his fingers again" Kate explained. This made Max feel so bad for Warren. Warren was nothing but a sweet person and a good friend, he even defended her against Nathan Prescott twice.

"Ouch, I hope the operation goes well though" Max replied.

"Yeah me too. I feel so bad for him" Kate told her.

"I may have to come visit him soon after Chloe and I get back" said Max as she looked out the window and leaning against the wall, staring out into the darkness illuminated only the the city's many colorful lights.

"Get back? You and Chloe going somewhere?" Kate asked.

"Yeah, actually. We're gonna be flying out to China for about a week and a half" Max told her.

"China? Wow, Max that's so exciting" Kate exclaimed happily, excited for her friend.

"I know. We've been talking about it for a while and we've saved up a lot of money. After we got paid by both of our clients today we decided it was time for us to leave LA for a while and explore all the wonders of China" Max explained.

"Sounds like you two have a fun trip planned out" Kate replied.

"I'm going to be bringing my instant camera too and take lots of Polaroid pictures. If you ever decide to come out to see us in LA I could show them to you" Max offered.

"That does sound nice. I actually just got my license and my dad just got me a car for my birthday. So I'm definitely going to drive down to see you guys" said Kate.

"Yeah, it'll be nice to have you around. Chloe and I can show you around too. Maybe even take you to Huntington Beach or the Santa Monica Boardwalk" offered Max.

"Sounds like a lot of fun. I know you're gonna be in China for a while, so when do you think I should come out?" asked Kate. Max then looked at her calendar and saw that there wasn't anything booked for a while, so she got an idea.

"How about you start heading out on the first of August? It'll give us plenty of time to prepare and make the guest room up nice for you" Max suggested.

"August first sounds nice. And it does sound like a nice way to end the Summer too" Kate agreed.

"Alright, sounds like a plan. Well, it was nice talking to you Kate, but I gotta get going. We're having dinner right now and we're going to have to get up super early for our flight" Max told her friend.

"Okay. I hope you make it to China safely. Tell Chloe I said "Hello" and enjoy your flight, alright?" Kate said.

"No problem. Have a good night, Kate. Goodbye" said Max before she hung up and then walked back out to the dinner table.

"There you are. Don't worry, your pizza didn't get cold" Chloe said as she was now eating the garlic bread crust of the pizza.

"Sorry about that. Kate wanted to catch up a bit, and she'll probably be visiting us this August" Max explained as she sat back down in front of Chloe.

"No problem. Oh, I wanted to tell you I just bought the tickets for our flight" Chloe said as she placed two pieces of folded printer paper with the tickets printed onto them on the table. Max picked them up and analyzed them but then noticed an extra little detail on each ticket.

"Chloe, these tickets are for a Red Eye flight. I thought we were gonna head to the airport in the early morning" Max pointed out.

"I know, but I'm not a huge fan of flying. And I figure it would be perfect since we'd be asleep the entire flight there" Chloe explained. Max couldn't really argue with that, and since Red Eyes were meant for people who aren't very fond of flying, it would make sense to take a flight where they'd be asleep the majority of the trip. She sighed and smiled before giving a response to Chloe's explanation.

"Can't argue with that. So what time does the flight leave?" asked Max.

"Fifteen minutes before midnight. We should probably brush our teeth and sleep in our clothes so that we don't miss our flight" Chloe replied as she finished her food and licked the garlic off the tips of her fingers.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea" Max agreed before she got back to eating her slice of pizza. The two then showered and picked out some clothes to wear during the plane ride, brushed their teeth and went straight to bed. Each one had an alarm on their phone set to wake them up, set to different ringtones they had on their smartphones.

* * *

Max opened her eyes to find herself back on the snowy bridge from before. This time though, there was a fire on the edge of the right side of the bridge, and resting in the raging inferno was the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed. She stood up and saw that the armored vehicles were splayed out and a few of them were turned over on their topsides, it could only have been the work of that creature from before.

"Why am I back here again?" Max asked worriedly as she looked around, her skin getting goosebumps once again from the cold environment and the strong chilly winds. She then looked up at the archway where the creature was before, but it wasn't there.

"Wait, what? where is that thing. I could have sworn it was standing up there last time" Max said to herself. The sound of groaning caught her ear next and saw the redheaded woman from before trying to pick herself back up off the ground, holding the elderly man that carried the pick-ax cane in her arms, he appeared to be unconscious.

"He's not well! Get him into one of the vehicles!" the woman who held him cried out. Max ran forward to try and help but she stopped when she felt a large rumble come from behind her. Growling followed the rumbling, and she turned around slowly to see the monster again, but this time she could fully see what it looked like instead of a silhouette.

"W-W-What the Hell?" Max said in an audible whisper as she stared into the eyes of the beast. The creature was tall and had some bulk to it's body, as well as it's arms and legs. It's face was gray, but it's body was covered head to toe in white fur, and it's eyes were a beautiful ocean blue. Max then backed away in fear, but the creature kept walking towards her like a gorilla on it's knuckles.

"Please... don't come closer" Max quietly begged but the monster's only reply was a roar to the face, which Max shut her eyes for and held her arms up in front of her in defense.

* * *

"Woah!" Max shouted as he woke up. She was no longer on the bridge, but sitting on the Red Eye flight to China. She was also back in the outfit she picked out for the flight instead of the clothes she had on before in the dream, which was a simple black t-shirt with a Death's Head Moth on the front, as well as dark blue skinny jeans with her favorite pair of converse with tiger faces on the sides, and a light gray hoodie tied around her waist. Max then began calming down and saw that Chloe was still next to her, asleep in the seat closest to the window wearing a pair of wireless bluetooth headphones. Chloe's outfit was a white tee-shirt with a black raven over a red sun, as well as black skinny jeans that were torn at the knees, and her usual combat boots. Max could hear the sound of Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" blaring out from the edges of Chloe's headphones as she slept peacefully in her seat.

"Of course she'd be listening to that kind of music. Even when she's sleeping" Max thought to herself before taking her phone out of her pocket to check the time. The digital letters read that it was now 2:44 AM, meaning Chloe and her had been asleep on the plane for a few hours, and they wouldn't reach China until closer to morning. Max then began remembering her dream and it was all she could think about.

"What was that? That dream was just like my last one, only it picked up where the last one left off. Seriously, what is going on?" Max asked herself before getting up and walking to use the lavatory in the back of the plane. Once inside, she locked the door and turned the sink knobs before taking some water from the running faucet into her hands and splashed it all over her face.

"Alright, Max. These are just dreams, and a giant white fuzzy monster's not going to kill you" she whispered to herself. She then exited the bathroom and shut the door behind her only to see Chloe awake and standing in front of her, which managed to startle her.

"Jeebus, Chloe you scared the ever-living crap outta me" said Max.

"Sorry. I saw you get up from your seat. Something the matter?" asked Chloe, concerned about her closest friend.

"I had another vision while I was sleeping Chloe. And this time I actually saw the monster" Max told her. Chloe's eyes widened and began to give Max her undivided attention.

"Max, start from the beginning" Chloe instructed, which got a lone nod from the brown-haired girl.

"It picked up where my last vision left off. The helicopter had crashed on the bridge, and then there was woman with really curly red hair. She kind of looked like Princess Merida from that one Disney movie, Brave, only she had glasses and had a British accent" Max began. Chloe's face looked a bit disturbed when she was told what the woman in the dream looked like, it sounded almost like Deja Vu to her.

"Keep going" said Chloe.

"She had this unconscious old man in his arms. I then ran over to try and help but I stopped when I saw the monster was right behind me. It was big, white, furry, and it had a gray face with blue eyes. It was walking up to me, supporting it's weight on the knuckles, almost like an ape" Max explained.

"That is seriously trippy, Max. Although I am glad this isn't another tornado vision, I'm not sure if this is good or bad" Chloe admitted.

"Me neither. I also get this feeling that... all of this is going to start happening when we arrive in China. Or even a short while after we get there" Max told her.

"I'm starting to think so too. Max, it's almost like these visions are trying to tell you something. What if the future is trying to send you a message?" Chloe asked.

"That is a possibility, Chloe. Regardless of what it is, I'm still concerned if my power has something to do with it" Max said.

"Like I said, I'm going to help you figure it out. But in the meantime, let's just play it by ear, okay?" Chloe suggested as she had one hand on Max's shoulder. Max could only nod before she and Chloe walked back to their seats and closed their eyes to try and fall asleep again. Max took out her wireless bluetooth walkman style headphones and activated them before playing a relaxing song to help her get back to sleep for the remainder of their flight. The song she chose was "Someone To Stay" by Vancouver Sleep Clinic, and it helped her get back to sleep for the remainder of their flight.

* * *

**A/N: Chapter two has just concluded my friends! Don't worry, we'll get to meet some of the characters from 'Abominable' in the next update, I promise. And we'll get to see how Max and Chloe meet them, and the friendships they begin to develop with them before they set to complete their main goal of this story! Please review, thanks!**


	3. Foresight: Part 3

**A/N: Welcome, my readers, to chapter 3 of "Life is Abominable". As promised, no more filler chapters like those last two chapters were. Now, we're going to get to meet more characters, specifically, the characters from "Abominable" and find out how they're going to fit into this story. So, how about we get right into it then, huh? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max and Chloe, excited to embark on their vacation to China, have packed everything they needed and boarded a Red Eye flight to the country they seek to explore. Max's vision of the fight between the monster and the armed men on the bridge continues while asleep on the flight and finally sees the monster up close before the vision abruptly ended. Chloe looked slightly troubled at the description of one particular person Max saw in the second half of her vision, a woman with red hair and glasses with teardrop shaped lenses. The two can only keep wondering what these new visions will mean as their destination is getting closer and closer..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 7:54 AM**

The flight had just landed, and Max and Chloe were waiting in the baggage carousel area to collect their luggage. Chloe had just gotten her bags, and was keeping an eye out for Max's. Six minutes would pass until she spotted them and scooped both of them up before walking over to Max who was peacefully sitting on a bench, waiting for Chloe to come back.

"Yo, Mad Max! I got your bags" Chloe called out, which caught the brown-haired girl's attention. She gave a little smile as she stood up and took her bags from Chloe.

"Thanks. You didn't tell me we'd be landing in Shanghai though" Max thanked before changing the subject.

"I thought this would actually be a good first stop. We'll stay here for a couple of days before we decide on our next destination" Chloe told her.

"Sounds like a plan. And you found a good hotel too?" asked Max.

"Yup, sure did. Once we get there I'm going to request a room on the fifteenth floor, and we'll have a balcony with an incredible view of the city. Perfect opportunity for some pictures too" Chloe said to her. The two then stepped out of the airport entrance together and smiled at how peaceful the city looked so early in the morning. Not very many cars were in the streets, and only a few people were walking around up and down the sidewalks too. Max then looked as Chloe inhaled a large breath before exhaling.

"You smell that, Max? That's the smell of adventure just calling out our names. Begging for us to explore every part of this beautiful city!" Chloe said with her hands on her hips, speaking in a hefty voice that only old-school cartoon superheroes would normally speak in. Max just snickered, rolled her eyes and shook her head at her friend's corny statement.

"Alright then, Captain Adventure, what's first on the agenda?" Max asked.

"I'm glad you ask, my dear Maximus. We must find The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, and drop off our luggage before we continue on our magnificent journey!" Chloe continued in her corny superhero voice before both of their stomachs growled in unison at the same time.

"But first, breakfast" Chloe said, using her real voice this time before the two broke down laughing.

"Yeah, we really gotta get some food into us before we can look for our hotel" Max agreed. The two then crossed the street and began looking around for somewhere good to eat before looking around for their hotel.

* * *

"I can't believe they have McDonald's here in China" said Max as she walked, half-eaten Sausage Egg McMuffin in her hand.

"We got lucky this time, Max. But we're going to have to look around for other places to eat while we're here. Mickey D's isn't the only option" Chloe said as she still had hash brown in her mouth.

"I know, I know. I'm just happy that we found it just as we were about to give up and just eat at the hotel once we found it" Max said.

"Yeah, I'm glad we found it too. Let's see if we can get to our hotel now" Chloe said before she took the rest of her food into her mouth, crumbled up the trash and tossed into a trashcan sitting on the edge of the sidewalk. The two then continued to walk before coming across an alleyway, they noticed a young girl who looked to be in her teenage years trying to pick up newspapers off the ground. The girl had short black hair, and brown eyes and was dressed in a red tee shirt with a pair of headphones on the front, a pair of faded blue short shorts with dark gray leggings, black converse high-tops and red and green striped socks raised up to the middle of her shins.

"Oh, great" the girl growled to herself as she was struggling to pick the papers up into a brown leather back that had a broken strap. Max couldn't help but feel bad as she watched the stressed out girl pick up her newspapers, so she dropped her bags on the ground and slowly walked up to her before kneeling down and picking a paper up and handing it to the girl.

"Here" Max simply said with a warm and caring smile. The girl took it and placed it back in the bag with the other papers.

"Thank you. I'm kinda in a hurry though" said the girl as she tried to lift the bag, which proved to be heavier then expected now that all the newspapers were back inside. Max turned to Chloe and gave her a look that told the blue haired girl "We have to help this poor girl out". Chloe nodded in agreement before placing her bags next to Max's.

"I know you don't know us but, what if we helped you?" Max politely offered. The girl looked to them with a shocked expression on her face.

"You're really willing to help me?" asked the girl.

"Of course I am. It's the right thing to do, and you look like you could really use it" Max replied as she held her hand out.

"You'd best take her offer. Max here's the most dependable person I know. You can always count on her for help" Chloe told her. The girl was silent for a while but then she nodded and handed Chloe and Max all the newspapers she had in the bag.

"Can you deliver the rest of these for me then, please?" asked the girl.

"Sure, just say where you need them taken" Max told her. She then stood up and pointed down the street.

"I just need to deliver half of the rest of those stores until it gets to the end of the block. Same thing with the other side of the street" explained the young girl.

"Alright, we'll get it done in a jiffy. Just stay there and we'll take care of everything, promise" Max said before the two left to do the girl's errand. Max then turned to Chloe who had about seven newspapers in her arms.

"I know, we're supposed to be on vacation but I couldn't just let her keep going with that broken bag she had" said Max, feeling guilty that she was stalling on their walk to the hotel. Expecting an annoyed or disappointed reaction from her, Chloe instead surprised her by doing the exact opposite and smiled while she spoke.

"Don't even worry about it. It's sweet that you wanted to that for her" Max smiled when Chloe said that.

"So, how about I'll take the buildings across the street and you just drop off the papers for this block?" Chloe suggested.

"Perfect. I'll see you then" Max said before walking away so Chloe could walk across the street. there were about seven stores and since Max had seven newspapers, it was the perfect amount needed. Max calmly walked past each one and placed a paper right in front of the door before moving onto the next one. One of them was a simple fruit stand, so Max set their paper next to the table where the cash register was before placing the next paper on the front doorstep of a cafe. After she dropped off the rest of the papers, Max turned around and walked back in the direction to the alley where the girl was.

"Hey Max. So, you got those papers successfully delivered?" Chloe asked as she finished crossing the street to get back to where they last saw each other.

"Oh yeah. All of them got a newspaper" Max replied with a nod.

"Hella yes! Now let's go talk to that girl and tell her we got the job done" said Chloe. The two then walked down the alley again. Their bags were still there and the girl was leaning against the wall, watching over them.

"Hey, we got all those papers delivered for you" Max gently told the girl. This made her smile and approach them with something to say.

"Thank you so much for your help. My name's Yi by the way" she said, introducing herself.

"I'm Max, Max Caulfield. And this is my friend, Chloe Price. We're visiting here from America" Max said.

"Good to meet ya, Yi. Happy to help out" Chloe piped in.

"It's nice to meet you both too. It's actually not too often I meet American tourists here. You staying at a hotel?" asked Yi.

"Yes, actually. We're staying at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental for a while" Chloe explained, which made Yi wince.

"Ooh. That's a really expensive hotel. I'm talking, super expensive. Only the rich can afford to stay there" warned Yi. This did make Max and Chloe a bit concerned that they'd end up spending a lot of money, so much they they wouldn't have enough to fly back to Los Angeles.

"Well, we don't know where else we're gonna stay" Max said.

"How about this? Follow me and I'll let you guys stay with me and my family. That way you won't get ripped off and I can show you around after you finish unpacking. Sound cool?" asked Yi. Max was a bit hesitant at first, but she knew Yi's offer was very kind and also the cheapest option possible.

"Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Yi. That's very kind of you" replied Max.

"Totally. It's hella rad you'd do this for us" Chloe added with a nod.

"No problem. I just need to pick up my pay from the guy I was delivering those papers for and then I'll take you there" said Yi. The two picked their bags back up and began to follow their new friend down the street to their next destination.

* * *

After following Yi to pick up her payment for delivering the newspapers, and dropping off the broken bag she was given to by the office, Max and Chloe began following her to where she lived. They didn't mind walking a bit longer, it gave them more time to take in the sights of Hong Kong. While they were walking, Max decided to start a new conversation with Yi to break the silence.

"So, Yi. Is delivering papers just a summer job or do you do it full time?" asked Max.

"Oh, I don't deliver newspapers. I go around doing various odd jobs for money" explained Yi.

"That's pretty cool. Doing different things every day must be an exciting things for you, huh?" Chloe asked.

"You can say that. I'm just trying to make as much money as I can" Yi told the blue haired girl.

"Why? What do you need it for? Something important?" asked Max.

"Well, yes actually. It's actually something really big. I'll show you when we get there" Yi told them as she kept leading her new American friends down the street. Eventually, after a turn of the corner, they were finally at Yi's apartment building. It looked like a pretty basic architectural design, nothing fancy but it still looked like a nice cozy little place to live. Max, Chloe, and Yi made their way to the elevator and rode it all the way to the eighteenth floor. Once they arrived on the specified floor, Max and Chloe were lead by Yi to the last apartment at the end of the hall on the left.

"Here we are, you guys. Home sweet home. My mom should still be at work but I know for a fact that Nai Nai's home" Yi said as she reached into her front right pocket for the key to the door.

"Nai Nai?" Chloe asked with a bit of an amused smirk on her face.

"Yeah, it's what I call my grandma" Yi answered simply before she unlocked the door. Once the three got inside, they were greeted by an older woman who appeared to be in her late thirties sitting on the couch wearing a pink shirt under a purple cardigan and black pants, and a short elderly woman wearing a purple tracksuit with green zigzags on the front working in the kitchen.

"I'm home!" Yi called out as she shut the door behind her. Both women had their eyes on the three girls who had just entered their abode.

"Back so soon?" the much younger woman asked.

"And who are these people?" the elderly one added.

"Mom, hey. I thought you were at work" Yi pointed out.

"I was. But the building had a gas leak. So work's cancelled until tomorrow. So, who are these nice looking girls you brought home?" asked Yi's mother. After taking in a deep breath, she began to answer the question.

"Mom, Nai Nai, these are my new friends. We met earlier this morning" Yi explained. Max then stepped forward to introduce herself, bowing as she did so. She remembered that bowing was the preferred greeting in much of Asia instead of shaking hands, so she made sure to bow to everyone she met instead of using common American greetings.

"My name is Maxine Caulfield, but my friends and family call me 'Max' for short" Max said politely. Chloe bowed too as she introduced herself.

"I'm Chloe Price. Max has been my best friend since we were kids" said Chloe. Nai Nai then approached Chloe and stared at her with a confused look on her face and with her head tilted to the side.

"What did you do to your hair?" Nai Nai asked, which made Yi and her mother gasp and widen their eyes.

"Oh, I dyed it" answered Chloe simply.

"Do you hate your mother?" asked Nai Nai. The question shocked Chloe so much that now HER eyes were widened. Chloe's mother, Joyce was now paralyzed from the waist down because of the storm that destroyed Arcadia Bay, causing her to lose her job as a waitress at the Two Whales Diner. Chloe was still upset at what happened, and didn't take any smack talk about her lightly. But, before a fist fight between Nai Nai and Chloe could begin, Yi intervened and spoke up as she stood in between the two of them.

"Okay, Nai Nai. I think that's a little too on the personal side to be asking someone you just met" she said nervously with a nervous smile on her face to match how she was feeling right now.

"I apologize for my mother" Yi's mother apologized.

"It's no trouble. That's just a sore spot for Chloe" Max said.

"But, if you don't mind me asking... why did my daughter ask you to stay with us?" asked Yi's mother.

"We're visiting from Los Angeles, California. And we were going to stay at a hotel, but your daughter told us how expensive the hotel we chose was. She then offered to let us stay here so that we wouldn't lose most of our money" Max explained.

"Well, it was very nice of her. And you're welcome to stay with us for as long as you need to until you head back home" Yi's mother told them with a warm smile and welcoming voice.

"Thank you so much. We are grateful" Max replied.

"Yi, can you show Max and Chloe to the guest room please?" asked her mother.

"Sure thing" Yi said as she took one of Max's bag's and one of Chloe's before leading them right down the hall and opened the third door to the right. The room was quaint, but comfy. It had a large queen-sized bed, a bathroom with a shower, and a dresser with a TV resting on top of it.

"Wow, this is such a nice room. Thank you, Yi" Max said as she walked inside first and set her luggage by the bed, and Chloe soon did the same before lying down on the large mattress.

"Ahh, this is comfy. I never thought I could miss how a bed felt so much" Chloe said in exaggeration while staring up at the ceiling.

"No problem you guys. I'm happy you like it" Yi replied with a smile. Max then took out her old school-bag which contained her Polaroid and all the film she brought from her luggage and placed it over her shoulder.

"So, now that we got the whole luggage thing out of the way, you still wanna show us around?" asked Chloe.

"I'm up for it. Oh, you still want to see what I need all that money I get paid from all my odd jobs for?" Yi asked. The two just nodded in reply before following Yi across the hall into her bedroom. As soon as they were inside, Yi locked her door and then opened up the window before climbing out and onto some scaffolding. Max and Chloe carefully followed her as she climbed up the scaffolding past the nineteenth and twentieth floors, and up onto the roof of the apartment building. The view was beautiful, and they could see all the way out to the ocean.

"Dang, Yi. This has to be the best view we've ever seen" Chloe said before she noticed Max take the Polaroid Spectra that used to belong to her father, William out of her bag and took a picture of the beautiful view. After a snap, the camera spit out a photo, which Max took into her fingers and shook to help it develop faster. Yi watched in awe while Max took the photo and approached them slowly.

"No way. Is that really an old school instant film camera?" asked Yi in amazement.

"Yeah. I know a lot of people take pictures on their phones or fancy digital cameras these days. But me, I like to keep it original. Not to mention I've been a huge fan of instant film since I was a little girl" Max explained while she handed Yi the photo she just took and saw how beautiful it turned out once it had fully developed.

"That is so cool. I didn't think these old things still existed" Yi commented while still staring into the photograph.

"Yeah. I was told you can buy restored and refurbished ones off the internet, but the film is so figgin expensive these days. Luckily though, I can afford it. I bought a lot of it just for this trip" said Max. Yi then handed Max her photo back before running over to a small makeshift fort that sat right next to the maintenance door that lead back down to the lower levels of the building.

"So, what was it you wanted to show us again?" asked Chloe as she and Max slowly approached the little fort behind Yi.

"This" Yi simply said before she pushed the blanket door aside to reveal a large map of Asia with several photographs of various beautiful locations across the country. They then watched as Yi took out a violin case and opened it to reveal a beautiful mahogany finished violin with a photo of Yi with an older looking man pinned to the case's interior.

"This was my dad's violin. He used to play it for me every night" Yi explained as she took the violin out and held it up to show it to Max and Chloe.

"That's really sweet. But something tells me your dad's no longer around to play huh?" asked Max. Yi got a sad look on her face after Max's question.

"You're right. He passed away not too long ago. But before he died he always told me how much he wanted to take me to these places. Dad always wanted me to travel the world. After he died I promised I'd get myself to these places he told me about someday" Yi told them. Max examined the photos, they were of various historical landmarks across Asia ranging from the Siuchan region, the Gobi Desert, the Yellow River, and something that looked similar to a gigantic Buddha statue in the middle of some grassy mountains.

"Wow, these look so far away. How do you plan on getting there?" Max asked as she looked into the photos, careful not to stare too deep that she could travel back in time to when the photos were taken.

"I'm not really sure. But regardless, I know I'll get there. For my dad" Yi calmly told them. The two American girls thought it was sweet how much she wanted to do this for her deceased father and fulfill his dying wish. The sound of helicopters caught their attention, and Max looked above her to see four large black Helicopters carrying a large metal storage case that would usually be carried on board a cargo ship and flying further away until they stopped and began hovering over what appeared to be an armored compound. Max thought this looked a little suspicious.

"Why wouldn't they just carry whatever it is they're carrying by boat?" Chloe asked out loud. Yi's only reply was a shrug. Max got an odd feeling inside her nerves when she stared at the hovering aircraft, almost like she knew what was being carried inside that box. She then took out her Polaroid and took a photo of the helicopters hovering over the compound, making sure to get the top part of the building into the picture as much as possible. After the camera spit the photo out, Max shook it to make it develop faster and she stared at the bottom of it.

"Yi, do you have any idea what this place is?" Max asked as she turned to the Chinese teen and showed the photo to her.

"No. Never seen it before" replied Yi. Max then looked to Chloe.

"Chloe, call me crazy, but... I wanna go find this place" Max told her.

"What? Why?" asked Chloe, confused as to why this place caught her interest.

"I got this feeling, this... familiar feeling when I first saw that box. I feel like if I go there and find out what it is, I'll get more answers as to what's causing my visions" explained the brown-haired girl.

"You really think whatever's in there is causing your visions? The one with the giant monster?" Chloe asked. Max nodded in reply.

"Alright. We'll leave right now then. If it'll help you figure out what your visions mean, we'll go there" Chloe told her, making Max smile. This is something Max loved about her, always looking for adventure and new ways to get in trouble, especially if it involved her best friend. The two then looked to Yi and began to speak to her.

"Hey, Yi? Can we postpone that tour for tomorrow? Max and I have some things we wanna do first before then" Chloe asked.

"No problem. I got other things to do anyways. Tomorrow's fine" Yi agreed with a smile before she climbed down the scaffolding and went back inside her room. Max and Chloe eventually followed right behind her. Now, they were going to get their answers.

* * *

**A/N: Chapter 3 is completed! Oh yeah! Now we finally got to meet Yi! Not to mention getting a little bit closer to finding out where Max's visions are coming from. That's going to be all in the next update, and it's going to awesome. Please review, thanks!**


	4. Foresight: Part 4

**A/N: Hey guys! Hope everyone's ready for the next chapter in Max and Chloe's epic adventure. Because I'm honestly getting more and more excited the further this story goes. It makes me super giddy to write this story, and I think it could make a really good spin-off story for those who chose the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending of the first Life is Strange game. Now, let's delve into the recap and the new chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max and Chloe have just landed at their first destination of their Chinese vacation, Shanghai. While trying to locate their hotel, the duo meet teenage Yi deliver newspapers for one of her many temp jobs to help her raise money to travel all across Asia like her father who has long since passed would have wanted. As her way of showing her gratitude, Yi invites Max and Chloe to stay with her and her family to avoid spending a lot of money on their pricey hotel. While up on the apartment roof, they see a convoy of helicopters carrying a metal cargo box fly above them and start hovering over a large compound that appears heavily guarded. After taking a picture, Max decides to go track down the building and discover what's in the box, as she believes it may be what is causing her visions..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 9:37 AM**

Max, Chloe, and Yi had just exited the apartment building and were exchanging goodbyes until they met up later tonight.

"So, what is it you're hoping to find at that building exactly?" Yi asked, curious as to what Max wanted to find the compound for.

"We're not sure yet. But that's what I'm hoping to find out" Max answered. Max and Chloe both knew without discussing it between themselves that they couldn't tell Yi or anyone else about the visions. If they did, she'd think they were crazy and possibly throw them out of their temporary residence.

"Well, okay. I'll leave you guys to it. I better get going. See you tonight!" Yi said as she began running down the street to her next temp job of the day. Max and Chloe waved her goodbye and good luck before they began walking across the street.

"So what's the plan, Mad Max?" asked Chloe.

"First, we find this compound. Then we discover whatever's inside that box and maybe get some answers as to why it's causing me to have this visions without me using my rewind" Max explained.

"Sounds like a plan. But we're going to have to ask directions if we're going to get there" Chloe pointed out. She knew Chloe was right, the place they were looking for was someplace they had no idea where it was, and she had a feeling nobody else would know where it is either.

"Yeah, but how? I doubt anyone's going to know what we're talking about" Max said.

"You still got that photo you took? Show them the photo and ask if they know what it is and where we can find it" said Chloe, giving her something helpful she could use. Max then pulled out the Polaroid she took of the convoy flying over the building out of her pocket and stared at it as they were walking. As they were now passing by a basketball court that rested in between two large apartment complexes, the two heard dribbling and looked to the ground to see a basketball landing by their feet.

"What the?" Chloe asked as she picked it up.

"Looks like somebody must have dropped it" Max said while taking her eyes from the photo and onto Chloe holding onto the ball and began to twirl it on her index finger like a pro basketball player.

"Chloe, I had no idea you could do that" said Max in amazement.

"I learned how to do a lot of things after you left Arcadia Bay. One of them was basketball, I used to play with Rachel a lot in the park" Chloe explained as she tossed the ball up into the air and bounced it off her elbow and onto her knee. The two then noticed a young nine year old boy with messy black hair and braces on his teeth, and dressed like a player on a kids basketball team approached them.

"Hey, you're pretty good at that" he told Chloe.

"Thanks. I had a lot of practice" the blue-haired girl replied before tossing the ball back at the boy.

"Cool hair. I wanted to dye mine green once, but my mom won't let me" the boy said, changing the subject to Chloe's blue hair with purple roots at the top.

"My mom freaked out a bit when she saw it at first too. But eventually she got used to it. What's your name, kid?" asked Chloe.

"I'm Peng. Who're you guys?" Peng said introducing himself.

"Name's Chloe Price, this is my gal-pal Max Caulfield. We're here on vacation from Los Angeles" Chloe said. Max just waved with a small smile instead of speaking.

"Los Angeles, that's pretty far away. I hear it's a pretty big and cool city too" Peng told them.

"It's beautiful too" Max added before she walked up to Peng and showed him her photo.

"Hey, we're looking for this building right here. Do you happen to know what is is or where we could find it?" asked Max. Peng just shook his head after staring at the photo for a while and handed it back to Max.

"Sorry, can't really say that I have. I'm not really supposed to wander the city all by myself" said Peng.

"Well, what are you doing here alone then?" asked Chloe.

"I usually hang around here since it's close to my apartment building across the street. Hey, you guys wanna shoot some hoops? Play a few matches?" Peng asked excitedly. Max was about to politely decline but Chloe stepped forward and cracked her knuckles.

"Max here ain't a big player. But me... I'll take ya on, no problem" Chloe said as she held her arms out to her sides with a playful smirk on her face. Peng then began dribbling the ball and ran to the court with Chloe following closely behind him. Max then took out her Spectra camera and took some photos of Peng and Chloe playing. Some of the photos were of Chloe playing defense with Peng dribbling in front of her, Peng making a perfect basket, and Peng trying to swipe the ball away from Chloe. After the photos were taken, Max swapped out the film pack for a new one and called out to Chloe.

"Hey Chloe. You can keep playing with Peng, I'm gonna see if anyone else knows where that compound is!" Max shouted.

"Don't take too long alright? The fun's just getting started!" Chloe shouted back before continuing her game with Peng. Max then walked away from the court and further down the sidewalk to continue her search.

* * *

Now Max was alone. She had gone around showing the photo to many other people but they said they didn't recognize it, or they just didn't understand English. Max felt like her quest was going nowhere now, and that it was pointless asking anybody else. She then spotted a group of teenagers about Yi's age walking down the sidewalk towards her in a group. There were about six of them in total, three guys and three girls. One of them who was wearing a dark blue wool vest over a blue and dark red plaid pattern shirt as well as black jeans and very expensive looking shoes approached her.

"Oh, well hello there. Haven't seen you around these parts" he said in a flirtatious manner. Max had a deadpan look on her face as she replied to the teenage boy's unwanted flirting.

"I'm here on vacation. And sorry, but you're not my type" said Max before she reached into her bag to take out the photo of the convoy over the building again. The boy continued his flirtatious approaches.

"Names Jin, what is a lovely lady like yourself called?" asked Jin.

"Max. And I just said you're not my type" she said before holding up the Polaroid up to him.

"Can you please tell me if you know where this place is and what it is?" asked Max with her deadpan look still plastered on her face.

"Oh yeah. I know that place, it's owned by Burnish Industries" said Jin after he looked at the picture for only a minute and a half.

"Burnish Industries? Never heard of it" Max said as Jin handed her back the photo. One of the girls in Jin's group walked up to her and began talking.

"It's a mega-corporation owned by the famous explorer himself. He's seen everything humanity has dreamed of seeing" she told her.

"Wow, that sounds really cool. I'm going to have to do some reading about him. Do you know where it is?" Max asked her before letting her see the photo she took.

"I saw some helicopters drop something off there earlier. It's fifteen blocks up the street, and then you take a right and then you stop after walking about six blocks in that direction" the girl told her.

"Thank you so much" said Max, grateful that now she was going to see what was really going on with that building. Jin tried to make another flirtatious approach on Max, but all that got him was a stomp on his foot by Max's before she walked away. Jin began freaking out and pulled a toothbrush out his back pocket to clean up where Max's foot stomped on his shoe. Max swore she could hear Jin calling those shoes his "Babies" as he was scrubbing the print left by Max's converse off.

"And I thought Victoria Chase was a diva" Max said to herself as she kept on walking. She chuckled at how much Jin reminded her of her old snooty classmate Victoria back from her days at Blackwell Academy. She kept walking the fifteen blocks north like she was told, and counted each block she past to make sure she wouldn't take the wrong turn when it came up. After she had passed the fourteenth block and cross the street to get to the fifteenth, Max looked to the right and saw the Burnish Industries compound.

"Bingo. Now all I gotta do's turn here and walk an extra six blocks" Max whispered to herself as she waited for the cars on the street to pass so it would be safe for her to cross. After crossing, Max continued to walk and count the blocks down as she passed them. Once she finally came up on the sixth one, she found herself at the compound entrance. There was a large stone slab at the very front that said "Burnish Industries Research Facility" in big letters that were carved into it, as well as the address on the very bottom.

"Hmm, that could be useful next time I wanna find this place. Would save me the trouble of constantly asking for directions all the time" Max thought to herself as she pulled out her Polaroid camera again and took a photo of the slab with the building name and address on it. After taking the photo out the camera, and shook it to speed the development process, she began staring at the sky above the building and saw the convoy carrying the metal cargo box was still there, only is was preparing to land as it wasn't so high up in the sky like it was before.

"Guess they don't want to damage whatever's in that thing" Max said as she kept staring. As she noticed that the box was being dropped off in the back, she began walking further down the sidewalk and turning left until she was in the back, spying as the box was being dropped off from the safety of a nearby bush. The helicopters then dropped the box safely on a large concrete clearing right behind the loading bay of the building before they ended up flying away to somewhere else. What Max saw next shocked her, the redheaded woman with the glasses from her visions had just walked out the doors of the loading bay, dressed in a lab coat and carrying a clipboard in the crook of her arm.

"Right on time as it was supposed to. Not bad, boys. Not bad at all" she said in that British accent that Max recognized from the vision. Max then noticed that some of the fencing was loose, creating a perfect door so she could enter and get a closer look. Max then crept in between the metal wiring and managed to sneak as quietly as possible to the other end of the large cargo box. Now Max had her back against the metal wall of the box and kept peeking her head out from the side as often as she could without being noticed to get a more close-up look on the woman.

"Wait, when I described what this lady looked like to Chloe she looked a bit disturbed. Does she know who she is?" asked Max before taking out her camera, turning off the flash, and managing to get a photo of the woman. After shaking the photo and putting it in her pocket, Max noticed a parked armored truck and managed to sneak over to it without being noticed.

"Come on everyone, hurry it up! Mr. Burnish has no time for your dillydallying and neither do I! So move it!" the woman shouted at the doorway behind her. Four armed guards dressed in uniforms similar to what SWAT officers would wear during a very hazardous case exited the building holding large staffs with electric fork-ends at the tops and began pointing them at the cargo container.

"What's with the weapons? What's so dangerous about whatever's in that thing?" Max asked to herself. She got her camera ready again, ready to take a photo of whatever was about to be taken out of the giant metal crate. Max could feel her heartbeat accelerate as she watched them open up the door, she had never been more nervous about taking a photo in her life before, so this moment was indeed a first for her.

"Alright you big beast, get your fluffy white butt out of there!" the biggest and buffest goon shouted as he entered the box and eventually began walking backwards as the cargo began to exit the crate. Max couldn't believe her eyes, it was a big white-haired, ape-like creature with beautiful sapphire blue eyes and an underbite that was visible from it's lower row of teeth visible on the bottom of it's gray-skinned face. Max also saw that it looked very scared for it's life while being tugged out by the giant shackles on it's wrists.

"Oh my God. That's the creature from my visions" Max whispered as she stared at the scared creature. Max could feel tears stain her eyes as one of the guards poked the creature's rear end with the electric end of his staff and making it cry out in pain and move forward and further away from the storage box he was kept in. Max could also see tears glistening in the beast's blue eyes, and they began to slowly fall down his face as he stared in fright at the guards.

"Don't worry. They're NOT going to get away with this" Max whispered to herself as if she was speaking directly to the creature. She then held the camera up and peeked her eye right through the viewfinder of her Polaroid and took the perfect photo, capturing the creature being abused by it's human captors perfectly. After the photo was taken, Max hid away from the woman and the armed guards.

"Phew, that was close. I'm so glad they didn't see me" Max thought to herself while shaking the photo a few times and placing it in her camera bag along with her Spectra before she was able to sneak back behind the metal box. She swore she could have heard the woman say she heard something coming from the truck and demand one of the guards check it out, she figured the sound of her Polaroid taking the picture and then spitting out the image she had just captured caught their attention. Max peeked her head out and watched as two guards dropped their staffs and took up two large guns as they approached the vehicle. After a few seconds, they walked back and picked the staffs up off the ground.

"Nobody's there, Dr. Zara" said one of the guards.

"Could have sworn I heard something. Oh well. Let's get this thing safely inside. There's a holding cell already set up for it in the detention area. Be careful though" Dr. Zara calmly ordered. Max then felt her heartbeat start to calm down before she began to tip-toe back to the fence where she entered and crawled back through the loose fencing wires.

"That was so close. I've got to tell Chloe everything" Max said before she began running back to the basketball courts, where she hoped Chloe still was, still shooting hoops with Peng.

* * *

Peng began to ran as fast as he could while dribbling the ball towards the hoop. Chloe had a focused look on her face as she watched Peng go faster and faster. She then got down on one knee and locked her hands together through her fingers. Peng then let one foot land inside of Chloe's locked hands and she tossed him high into the air so he could make a perfect air-dunk. Chloe then caught Peng in her arms and placed him atop her shoulders.

"And he makes one amazing dunk. The crowd's going crazy, just at the moment of the buzzer too! Peng's won the national championship!" Chloe belted out like a professional sports announcer while Peng was basking in the pretend glory.

"Ahh! Ahh!" Peng whispered out loud, pretending to be his own crowd as he held up two peace-signs in the air. Chloe laughed a little bit before setting Peng down on the ground on his feet.

"You're a pretty cool kid, Peng. I love how committed you are to this basketball thing" Chloe complimented.

"Thanks, Chloe. It's my dream to be a basketball superstar. One day I'm gonna travel the world and play at stadiums all across different cities" Peng told her. Chloe smiled at how much Peng reminded her of Rachel Amber. They both wanted to travel the world and become famous, and they were both so free-spirited and friendly.

"You know, Peng. You remind me of an old friend of mine. You'd be surprised how alike the two of you are" the blue-hair girl said.

"Really? Did they wanna be a basketball player too?" Peng asked, making Chloe lightly chuckle at the question.

"Nah, she played every now and again with me but her real passion was acting and modeling. We were gonna start a new life together in California and eventually the whole world. But... something happened, and I never saw her again" Chloe said with a somber look on her face as she crossed her arms against her chest and twirled the tip of her left boot on the concrete.

"Oh, I'm really sorry to hear that" said Peng, feeling slightly guilty he brought up what was considered a bad memory for his new friend.

"Eventually, Max came back and she began to pick up the pieces. We rekindled our friendship and eventually left for Los Angeles. We both knew it's what Rachel would have wanted" Chloe explained, her smile returning for a brief moment. The two of them then heard rapid breathing and turned their heads to the court entrance to see Max running towards them and looking like she was out of breath.

"Speak of the devil. You find that place?" asked Chloe as she placed her hand on Max's shoulder.

"Chloe... I... I saw so much. It all makes sense now. I have so much to tell you" Max replied sounding distressed and tired at the same time. Chloe could tell Max saw something absolutely awful from the fact her eyes still had fresh tears glistening her eyes.

"Is something wrong, Max? You look really scared" Peng asked, concerned for Chloe's friend.

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright, Peng. It's just, something I really need to talk with Chloe about" Max replied before wiping her eyes dry with her arm. Chloe then looked down at Peng and then back at Max before speaking.

"Okay, we're gonna talk about this. But first we should make sure Peng gets back home safely" Chloe told her. Max nodded in agreement before looking to Peng.

"Peng, where did you say your apartment complex was again?" asked Max.

"Right down the street. You can actually see it from right down that crosswalk" Peng said pointing to the apartment building Yi lived in.

"Oh, cool. We're actually staying there for a while with our new friend, Yi" Chloe told him, which made Peng's face light up.

"You know Yi? She lives a floor right above me and my cousin" Peng told the two.

"That is so cool, Peng. You wanna walk back with us? We were just heading there anyways" Max offered.

"Okay" Peng simply replied and the three began walking back to the apartment building together. Max knew after Peng was dropped off, she and Chloe were going to have a very serious conversation about the things she just saw, and what they were going to do about them.

* * *

**A/N: DING! Chapter completed! Whoo, so much as happened. Now we've finally gotten to meet, Peng, Jin, and most important of all... EVEREST! Yay! Next chapter, Max explains what she saw at the compound to Chloe and how the yeti may be the cause of her recent visions. Much more will come along with the events to come in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	5. Foresight: Part 5

**A/N: Hey everybody, hope everyone's ready for a new update for "Life is Abominable", because I got one for ya'll right here! And this chapter is where the first episode ends! Yeah, I'm actually naming chapters as parts of certain episodes. As to how many episodes this story will have, I'm hoping to aim for five like the first and second "Life is Strange" games, and not like "Before the Storm" which only had three or four episodes. But enough with that, let's start the chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max had tracked down the heavily guarded compound belonging to Burnish Industries, and discovered that the red haired British woman from her visions is working there. She had also discovered that inside the metal storage crate that was dropped off into the back of the compound was the same creature from her visions, and it was scared for it's life as it was brought inside the building in chains. Chloe had also made a new friend in the form of a nine year old boy named Peng, who dreams of being a basketball superstar. Upon seeing a distressed Max return from the Burnish compound, she could tell what she saw was anything but good. Now, a discussion will take place between the two to decide the best course of action..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 11:59 AM**

Peng had ran up the stairs leading to his floor in the apartment complex with Max and Chloe following closely behind him. The two had caught up to him and saw the boy standing right in front of his front door.

"Is this it?" asked Max.

"Yup. This is home. I think it's awesome you guys are staying here too" Peng told them.

"Yeah, I had a lot of fun, Peng. You're a talented player" Chloe complimented. The conversation was interrupted when they saw the door open and to Max's surprise, Jin exited the apartment to talk to Peng.

"Peng, come on. Auntie's already made lunch" Jin said before he noticed Max and Chloe standing right next to him. Jin yelped slightly and backed up a bit before regaining his composure and cleared his throat. He then narrowed his eyes and placed his hands in his pants pockets before speaking.

"Oh, it's you" said Jin cooly.

"Yeah. And like I said before, I'm not interested" Max said in reply. Peng then got a confused look on his face

"Wait, you know my cousin?" Peng asked Max.

"Cousin? The guy who tried hitting on me while I tried asking for directions is your cousin?" Max asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah, he recently moved in because he needs somewhere to stay while attending college" Peng explained.

"Medical scholarship. And, I think I'd look good in white" Jin said while taking out his smartphone and licking his hand to slick his hair back before taking a selfie, and puckering his lips together for the "Duck-Face" look before snapping the photo. After he slipped his phone back into his pocket, he noticed Chloe standing right next to her with her arms crossed while she stared at Jin.

"And who might you be?" asked Jin, acting like a suave ladies man once again like he did before with Max.

"Someone who's also not interested" Chloe answered before she felt Jin place his arm around her shoulder and give her a flirtatious look, which only made Chloe's eyes roll to the side and scoff.

"Oh come on. It's just one date, that's all I ask. And I'll have you know I'm pretty popular with the ladies around here" Jin bragged, placing his arm around her shoulder once again, while Chloe let out a loud groan. Max and Peng looked down at the stairway to see Yi coming up the stairs and stopping to check out what was going on.

"Max? What's going on here?" she asked.

"Jin here's hitting on Chloe" Max answered while turning back to what was going on, and not bothering to take her eyes off Chloe and Jin.

"Sorry buddy, but I'm still not interested in whatever you have to offer" Chloe said before smacking his arm away and walking back over to Max. Jin could not believe this, he was usually so popular with the ladies but he just got rejected by TWO attractive girls today. Peng couldn't help but emit a giggle from in between his teeth at his own cousin's horrible luck today.

"What's wrong, Jin? Losing your magic touch?" Peng asked, teasing his older cousin.

"Zip it, Peng. There's no way this is happening to me" Jin replied as his jaw was now slightly agape and eyes slightly widened. Max also noticed his arms were extended out in front of him that made him look like the "Why U No" meme. Yi then tapped Max on the shoulder which caught her attention.

"Mind if I borrow your camera?" Yi asked.

"Uh, sure. But what for?" Max asked as she handed over her Polaroid over to the teenage girl.

"Because this momentous occasion deserves to be photographed. Here's to the day the popular ladies man and aspiring medical student, Jin was rejected by two lovely ladies in one day" Yi said before pressing the button as she stared into the camera and snapped the picture. As the photo came out of the camera, Max, Chloe, Peng, and Yi were all laughing hysterically while Jin stood there with the same look and pose that was caught on camera while they laughed. Their laughter echoed throughout the hallways as well, catching the attention of Yi's mother.

"What is going on out here?" asked Yi's mother.

"Jin got rejected by Max and Chloe after flirting with them" Peng said while still laughing. Chloe then took the photo out and shook it like Max usually would before handing it to Yi's mom. The photo wasn't fully developed yet, but the shaking made it develop a bit faster enough so that a tiny hint of a picture could be made out. Once Yi's mom saw what it was of, she began to laugh along with the others at Jin's bad luck as well as the face and pose he was still making.

"I think we broke him" Peng said, his laughter dying down a bit.

"You better take him inside, Peng. He's gonna snap out of it eventually" Chloe said while still laughing. Peng then took Jin by his wrist and guided him back inside their apartment. Peng waved Chloe goodbye, and Chloe waved back with a smile before shutting the door.

"Alright guys, let's go inside before you disrupt everybody else who lives here" Yi's mother said while trying to control her laughter. The three girls followed her back inside Yi's apartment while Yi and Max were still laughing. When they got inside, Yi handed Max her Polaroid camera back and Yi's mom went over to Nai Nai to show her the photo that was just taken of Jin. By this time, the picture had been fully developed and the image was fully visible. Max, Chloe, and Yi then watched Nai Nai laughing with a high pitched laugh as she looked at the photo.

"He looks so ridiculous!" Nai Nai howled in laughter. After a while, Nai Nai set the photo down on the kitchen counter and went back to cooking. Yi picked the photo back up and turned to Max.

"Would it be alright if I keep this?" asked Yi.

"Yes, totally. You took the photo, you should get to keep it" Max said smiling. To show her gratitude, she pulled Max in for a hug, which she returned. It felt good making friends for Max, she was a bit of a loner at Blackwell with the exception of Kate Marsh and Warren Graham. But when she discovered her powers and reunited with Chloe, she began making more friends with other students around campus until the storm destroyed Arcadia Bay and wiped out a large fifteen percent of the town's population.

"Thanks, Max" Yi said with great sincerity in her voice.

"You're welcome, Yi. I'm really glad you like it" Max said before she broke the hug apart and began feeling dizzy. She groaned at the feeling and clutched the sides of her head before she fell to her knees on the apartment floor. Yi, Chloe, Nai Nai, and Yi's mother gathered around in concern.

"Max? What's going on?" Yi asked, clearly worried for what was happening. Chloe knew what this meant, Max was having another vision, and this was how she had visions of the tornado that destroyed Arcadia Bay. Max groaned in pain as she shook her head to try and snap out of it.

**(Inside Max's Head)**

Instead of being on the bridge, Max found herself inside the Burnish Industries research compound. And she also looked down to see her hands were big, gray, and her arms were surrounded by fluffy white fur, and bound together by metal shackles. Max realized what she was looking at was from the creature's point of view. She was surrounded by the armed henchmen she saw earlier, and they were still holding their electric spears up at it. Dr. Zara was staring directly at the creature as this all was happening.

"We gave you the chance to cooperate. Now we have to do this the hard way!" one of the guards shouted before electrocuting the poor creature right in the belly. What was freaking Max out even more, was she could actually feel the pain that was being inflicted onto the captive beast. She could feel the electrical surges impact the belly, as well as hear the terrified and pain-filled screams it produced.

"Don't hurt it, you twit! Mr. Burnish wants it unharmed. Discipline it if you must but don't leave any long lasting damage on it's body!" Zara scolded before taking out a pistol. Max watched as Zara pointed the gun at the creature/her and fired a tranquilizer dart into it's neck before the world around them started to get blurry. Eventually, it got dizzy and sleepy before collapsing and falling to the ground. The minute the beast fell asleep, the vision ended.

**(Back in the Apartment)**

Max opened her eyes gasping loudly as she fell backwards onto the pristine white tile floor of the apartment. She looked up to see the worried looks of Chloe, Yi, her mother, and Nai Nai right above her while she was rapidly breathing.

"Max, what's wrong?" asked Yi, worried for her friend.

"I don't know" Max said, clearly in distress. Chloe then helped her back up to her feet with her worried look still on her face. The minute Max got back up onto her feet, she hissed in pain while clutching her side. Chloe lifted Max's shirt to reveal some pink skin where the electric spear zapped the creature in the belly in her vision. This freaked Max out even more, and Chloe grew even more concerned.

"Oh my gosh! Max, what happened?" asked Yi's mother in concern.

"Looks like a really nasty sunburn" Chloe said as she took a closer look.

"I'll go get the medical supplies" Nai Nai said before walking over to the storage closet right next to Yi's room. Chloe and Yi's mom helped Max over to the green couch so she could rest.

"This day couldn't get any stranger" Chloe said to herself, not loud enough for Yi, her mother, or Nai Nai to hear it.

"Alright, set her down gently. Rest her feet on the coffee table to help her get more comfortable" Yi's mother advised gently. Yi cleared the table of the coasters, newspapers, and magazines that were scattered all over it's surface before Max laid her converse-covered feet on top of it. Nai Nai came back with a white plastic box and opened it up to take out some rubbing alcohol and an antibacterial wet-nap.

"Okay, my darling, we're going to make it better. Lift your shirt up for me so I can get a good look at it, please?" Nai Nai calmly requested. Max lifted her black tee-shirt slightly to reveal the burn on her stomach to the elderly woman once again.

"Looks fresh, but we should be able to take care of it quickly. You may feel a slight sting, but it'll pass in a few seconds" said Nai Nai as she poured some of the alcohol on the small wet-nap and applied it onto the burn. This made Max hiss in pain, and some tears to emerge from her eyes and trickled down her face down to her jaw.

"It'll go away soon, honey. I promise" Yi's mother said in a comforting manner. Nai Nai continued to dab the wound with the small rag until she felt enough had been applied. The elderly woman had threw the wet-nap in the trash and placed the rubbing alcohol back in the box before taking into her hand a roll of gauze.

"Can you sit up for me, please?" Nai Nai asked. Max nodded before sitting upwards and still holding up her shirt to allow Nai Nai to wrap the gauze around her midsection.

"Thanks you. That feels a lot better" Max said as Nai Nai was finishing up. After making sure the bandages would stay secure with a metal pin, Yi's mother helped Max stand up.

"How did you get that thing anyways?" Yi asked, curious to know. Max couldn't tell them about the visions, or her powers, so she knew she would have to lie to them.

"I burnt myself on the stove while making dinner before our trip. I applied some burn ointment before we boarded the flight, but I guess it's worn off now" Max falsely explained. She grew relieved as she saw that the three other women besides Chloe bought her lie. Chloe knew this had something to do with Max's visions, but she would have to talk with her about it alone without them within listening range of their conversation.

"And what happened with that headache you had earlier? You were screaming like a maniac just a few moments ago" Yi asked. This time, Chloe stepped in to answer the question.

"She was having a flashback. She has PTSD" said Chloe. Max was grateful Chloe stepped in, and decided to just play along with her story.

"What happened?" Yi's mother asked.

"You remember back in 2013 that giant hurricane that destroyed Arcadia Bay, Oregon?" Chloe asked.

"Oh, I remember that now. It was so long ago" said Nai Nai. It had only been two years since it happened, but it left such a devastating impression on the world's nations. The storm had made national news all across the globe, and sympathies were given to the citizens of the town by many. There was even a relief fund set up by one of Max's old classmates Dana to help the surviving townspeople who were lucky enough to make it through the deadly tornado.

"It was so sad what happened. Are you saying you two were there when it happened?" Yi's mother asked.

"Yeah. We were out of the storm's path though by the lighthouse and watched the thing rip the town to complete shreds" Max piped in. Nai Nai and Yi's mother now had looks of sympathy and concern on their faces.

"Oh honey. I'm so sorry about that. I can only imagine watching something as horrible as that happening to you and your town" Yi's mother said while gently tracing her fingers down Max's brown hair.

"You don't get over something like that so easily. I know that much. Just know, Max, that we are here for you and Chloe" Nai Nai said, taking her hand into hers. Yi only watched and remained quiet as all this happened. After a short while, Yi's mother went back to work, and Yi went back to doing her temp jobs, while Nai Nai left to go to the store to pick up some ingredients for dinner. Now that they were alone, Chloe took Max by the hand and lead her down to the guest bedroom they were given. Chloe allowed Max to enter first before she shut the door behind them and locked it.

"Okay, I know that burn and that psychotic episode in the middle of the living room had something to do with those visions you've been having recently. You may as well tell me what really happened" Chloe said.

"Have I really become that predictable?" Max asked. Chloe looked at her with a smirk and replying with only one word.

"Maybe" with a sly tone of voice and her hands placed on her hips. Max then took a deep breath and took out the photos she had taken while he was exploring the compound. First she showed Chloe the photo of the sign that was right outside.

"Burnish Industries? Must be one of those corporations owned by some old rich dude" said Chloe while she looked at the picture.

"I was told by one of Jin's friends that it was owned by a man named Burnish who was a famous explorer in his youth. For some reason nobody hears from him that much anymore" Max explained.

"That's something to look into for sure. What else happened?" Chloe asked, which prompted Max to hand her the next photo she took of Dr. Zara.

"I managed to get a picture of that British lady from my last vision. I also heard one of the guards call her "Dr. Zara", so now I know who she is" Max told her. Chloe now had a look of absolute scorn on her face as she stared down onto the photo.

"No way. HER!? She's working for whoever this Burnish dude is!?" Chloe said in outrage. Max was now surprised that Chloe knew something about what was going on.

"You know her?" asked Max.

"Yeah, starting with the fact she's not British AT ALL! Her name's Emily Zara and she was born in Portland before moving to Arcadia Bay to study at Blackwell on a zoology scholarship. And on top of it all, she was a psycho stalker with a massive obsession with Rachel" Chloe explained. Now Max was horrified, horrified that now Rachel Amber, Chloe's girlfriend and saving angel, had something to do with these visions.

"Rachel had a stalker?" asked Max.

"Yeah. She had a little love shrine in her locker, collages of her face on her dorm wall, she even knew where she lived. After the principal found out, she was put on academic probation. Not to mention Rachel's family filed a restraining order against her after she attempted to break into their house three separate times" said the blue haired girl while not taking her eyes off the photograph she held tightly in her hand.

"How long ago this?" Max asked her friend.

"Several months before she disappeared. She also knew Rachel and I were dating, and she resented anyone Rachel was around more than she was around her" Chloe answered. It was official, Max officially didn't like this woman.

"Did she ever, you know?" Max asked.

"Just once, but she didn't get far. Since David was already head of security of Blackwell while all this was going down, he was pretty in the know about her. He scared her off with a shotgun discharge into the air when she attempted to break down the front door, it managed to scare her off enough to make sure she never came back. I even remember seeing her file on his desk back home one time, I only managed to get a clear look at one document in the folder, her mental health records. There was some pretty disturbing stuff in there too" Chloe told her. This piqued Max's interest too, as well as her levels of concern too. The last thing they needed was a mentally unstable nutcase working for a rich explorer on their case.

"Was she just as crazy as Nathan Prescott? Or was she worse than him?" asked Max.

"They said she suffered from delusions of grandeur, and obsessive compulsive disorder, sadistic personality disorder too. Some of the other stuff I couldn't really remember, but I did see she had to take some hella strong medications for all of them. Eventually, she transferred to another school shortly after her probation ended. She's three times worse than Nathan Prescott, Max. She's hella more dangerous than he was" Chloe concluded. And last but not least, Max took out the last photo and handed it to her friend. Chloe's eyes widened in shock when she saw the creature on photograph, held in chains being hurt and looking scared for it's life.

"Holy crap-snacks! Max, is that the thing you keep seeing in your visions?" Chloe asked in astonishment.

"Yeah. I don't really know what it is though. But I do know it's what's causing my visions" Max said in reply.

"Wait, I don't understand. How is this thing causing you to have these weird visions. Did it cause the one you had earlier?" Chloe asked to confirm what Max had said.

"Yes. In the vision I was watching the poor thing being tortured from it's own point of view. When one of those armed thugs shocked it in the stomach with an electric staff, I actually felt it's pain. It's calling out for help, Chloe. This poor creature needs our help, and if we don't do anything, it's suffering is going to get worse with every passing minute" Max said in an attempt to persuade Chloe to help her.

"Max, this... whatever this thing is, you two share some sort of telepathic link. And it chose you to be on the receiving end of it's calls for help" Chloe said.

"Chose me? That doesn't make any sense. Even if it actually DID choose me, why me? what makes me so special?" asked Max in confusion.

"I don't know, but I do know that it sees something in you, Max. And we need to help this thing out, regardless of the consequences we may be facing if we get caught" Chloe said. This made Max happy knowing that she was now on board with launching a rescue mission to break the beast out of the Burnish compound. She launched herself forward to hug Chloe with a wide smile on her face. The hug threw Chloe off guard slightly, but she returned it and smiled as well.

"We'll leave as soon as Yi and everyone else is asleep. But where are we going to hide it once we break it out?" Chloe asked.

"The roof. That little blanket fortress shrine thing that Yi built, we can keep him hidden there until we figure out what to do next" Max answered.

"Sounds perfect. But there's something else we need to figure out" said Chloe. Max just stayed silent and nodded, allowing Chloe to express whatever concern she had about the plan.

"What are we going to do if we actually get caught?" Chloe asked. Max then looked down at her right hand and clenched it tightly into a fist.

"I know I promised I'd never do it again after what happened to Arcadia Bay two years ago... but I think it's time I start using my power again" Max said. Chloe then got excited and her face lit up like a little girl meeting Santa Claus in person for the first time ever.

"Aw hella yes! Super-Max is back in business!" Chloe cheered. Max blushed and cheered at her statement before turning her head to the window which gave off a clear view of the Burnish Industries compound she was at earlier and placed her hand against the glass surface.

"Don't worry. We're coming to save you soon. I promise" Max whispered to herself while closing her eyes and smiling slightly.

**-This Action Will Have Consequences-**

**End of Episode One: Foresight**

* * *

**A/N: Episode One is now officially over! Next update we'll delve right into Episode Two: Breakout! And shortly after that, the events of the movie will come into play and things will get even more interesting from there. So, Max is now going to start using her powers again, and she's going to use them to save the poor creature that's being held captive by Rachel Amber's old stalker that's working for some wealthy explorer. And Jin got rejected by both Max AND Chloe, and Yi got a photo of his reaction too (I laughed so hard writing that). Please review, thanks!**


	6. Breakout: Part 1

**A/N: Welcome to Life is Abominable Episode Two: Breakout! It feels so good getting to episode two of this five part series. And just so you know, I am NOT splitting this story into separate parts. I am placing all five episodes into one story. I'm so happy those of you who are reading are enjoying this story so far. Max and Chloe's journey is about to continue! So, let's dive right into episode 2 right now! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_The captive creature causing Max's visions has just given her a new one, this time showing it being tortured by it's captors in first person perspective, and leaving a burn mark on Max's stomach after the creature was electrocuted in the exact same area in the vision. Chloe has also revealed that Dr. Zara isn't really British at all, but originally from Arcadia Bay, Oregon. She was also revealed to be a mentally unstable and obsessed stalker to Chloe's old girlfriend, Rachel Amber. Given how Max now shares a telepathic link with the beast, she decides it's suffered enough and is going to break it out of the Burnish compound tonight, along with Chloe's help. After two years, in order to avoid being detected and captured, Max decides the time is right to start using her gift to rewind time once again..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 11:58 PM**

"Max... Max. Psst! Hey, Max!" a whispering voice called into Max's ear. This caused Max to wake up emitting a quiet gasp before launching herself upwards.

"Jeebus, Chloe. What's with you scaring the crap out of me?" Max said while rubbing her eyes to help her feel more awake. She turned her head to the side to see Chloe donning all black, including a black hoodie that was zipped up all the way to the bottom of her collarbone, black skinny jeans, and a black beanie covering her blue hair.

"Sorry, Max. But we have to get going remember?" Chloe reminded her.

"Oh yeah, right. The breakout mission. Is that why you're wearing all black?" asked Max as she got up from the bed and stretched her arms out.

"Well, yeah. If we're gonna pull a hella awesome heist that would put "Oceans Eleven" to shame, you gotta dress like you're gonna pull off a hella awesome heist right?" Chloe pointed out with her hands on her hips, which made Max chuckle and shake her head.

"Guess you have a point" Max said before going into her bag to select her "Heist Outfit" and changing out of her pajamas before swapping them out. After a few minutes, Max now donned a pair of black skinny jeans, and a hooded sweatshirt with no zipper from Buckle, and her favorite pair of converse.

"How do I look?" Max asked.

"Like a friggin ninja, dude. Max Caulfield: Super-Spy, coming soon to a theater near you" Chloe complimented while making a little joke which was appropriate given what they were about to do.

"I highly doubt that movie would sell a single ticket" Max said as she placed her hood over her head.

"You never know. You could be the next James Bond, Max" Chloe replied as she donned her own hood over her head as well.

"Okay, James Bond WISHES he was me" Max whispered as she opened up the door as quietly as possible to avoid waking anybody else up. Chloe followed closely behind her trying her best to not make a single sound. After Max shut the door, the two of them quietly walked to the front door to exit the apartment. Chloe opened the door this time, allowing Max to go through first and then shutting the door behind her and following her down the concrete stairway. After a few flights of stairs, they were finally at ground level and exited the building.

"That was so close. I was so worried we were gonna wake someone up" Max said.

"I know. My heart's still racing" Chloe said with her hand over her heart. Max then began walking across the street, and Chloe followed right behind her.

"Alright, Max. You know where this place is, tell me where we're going" Chloe said.

"We're just going to keep going straight for fifteen blocks or so. Then we make a right and then we're going to go another six blocks and then we should be there" Max explained. Chloe only nodded and continued to follow her brunette friend down the street. There weren't many people walking this late at night, but there were a lot of cars on the street. After fifteen blocks, they were ready to turn to the right and the building was right in front of them in the distance.

"Damn, those light towers make it look like some kind of prison" Chloe commented as she stared at the building.

"To whatever that thing is, it IS a prison" said Max as she began walking across the street with Chloe.

"And the warden's that sadist stalker POS Zara. I owe her a punch to the mouth for everything she did back in Arcadia Bay. And an elbow to the nose for good measure" said Chloe, still angry at everything the redheaded woman pretending to be British did while Rachel was still alive and attending Blackwell alongside her.

"I understand you're angry, but our main goal here's not to get caught. However, if we run into her at some point after this... go for it. I think she deserves it" Max said as they now stood in front of the building.

"Thanks. So, now that we're here, what's your plan?" Chloe asked.

"We'll go in through the back. There's a hole in the fence wiring that makes for a pretty good back door. It was how I managed to sneak in and took those photos last time" Max said before taking Chloe's hand and leading her down the street and around the corner to the back of the compound. Once they got up to the fence, Max lifted the loose fencing up and allowing Chloe to go in first before she followed behind her.

"Okay, that was the easy part. The hard part's finding a way inside the actual building" Chloe said while the two hid in the darkness to blend in and keep out of anyone's vision. Max then stared at the back loading dock where she watched them take the creature in before, and saw a large truck parked in the back.

"Alright, once we get that thing out of wherever it's being held, we'll load it on board that truck and drive it out of the compound to avoid suspicion. You think you can hot-wire it, Chloe?" Max asked.

"You know it, Maximus. Security looks pretty tight though, look at all those guys. It's going to be impossible getting in without being recognized. Especially in these outfits" said Chloe as she watched a group of armed goons unload some things out of the back of the truck's loading dock. After a few seconds of analyzing the guards, Max had an idea.

"I think I may have a solution on how we can avoid that problem. You remember that scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope? where Han and Luke knocked out those Imperial Stormtroopers and took their uniforms?" asked Max. Chloe got a smirk on her face.

"I like where this is going" She said before following Max towards the truck. The two friends climbed into the shotgun seat, and saw a door leading to the back where the crates were being unloaded. After a brief waiting period, a majority of the guards left but only two remained. Now, Max and Chloe entered the back of the truck without anyone noticing them. Max then peeked her head out from behind some boxes and called out to the guards.

"Hey you guys!" she called out. The two guards then looked behind them to see her.

"Can you give us a hand with this?" Max asked before hiding back behind the crates. She also saw Chloe managed to find a monkey wrench in the truck's build-in tool-box and was holding it like a baseball bat. When the two guards entered the truck and approached Max, Chloe knocked one guard out by swinging the wrench across his jaw. Max pounced on the other one, pinning them to the floor and punched him repeatedly in the face until he stopped struggling to get back up onto his feet.

"Nice. You were right, James Bond DOES wish he was you. Now let's get these guys out of their uniforms and put them on" Chloe said as she dragged the guard out of the truck. Max nodded in agreement and began to drag the guard she just knocked out too.

* * *

Now, Max and Chloe were dressed exactly like the guards they just knocked out. They had their helmets on and visors down so that their faces couldn't be seen by anybody else. They also had taken their guns, so they could keep themselves protected. The two then exited the truck and walked into the compound through the door. The hallway was pretty empty, so they considered themselves lucky nobody was around.

"Alright we're in. This has been pretty easy so far" Chloe said as she walked side by side with Max down the hall.

"Don't jinx it. Besides, we still need to find out where in the building that poor thing's being held" Max said.

"I suggest we try the surveillance room. Holding cells in prisons and jails usually have cameras in them. We may be able to find out where it is on one of the cameras" Chloe suggested.

"Good idea. Where do you think we'd find it?" Max asked. The two stopped where they stood when they watched one guard exit one room and left the door halfway cracked open. Max could make out several different computer screens mounted on the wall and one gigantic keyboard on the desk, the keys glowing light blue.

"That was easy" Chloe whispered as she watched Max approach the door with caution. After quickly peeking inside the room, Max told Chloe to come inside with her. Once the blue-haired girl was inside, the two of them took off their helmets and set them on the desk before they began watching every monitor in the room.

"Jackpot. This shows the live feed of every camera inside and outside the building" Max said as she took a look at one of the screens to show the front parking lot of the building, and another screen showing the employee break room to show three guards enjoying a late night dinner together.

"Woah, you were right. I can see pretty much everything on these monitors" Chloe said while staring deeply into one of the other monitors that showed the administration office security camera footage.

"Now, all we gotta do is find out where the holding cells are" Max said as she tapped on the right arrow key and changed the screen to footage of another room. She then began to keep on pressing down on the key like she was channel surfing on the TV.

"Geez, how many cameras can one single-story facility have? This building isn't even that large" said Max as she was getting frustrated her search wasn't getting results so far.

"This is what happens when one person has too much money. Buying a butt-ton of crap they don't need but THINK they do" Chloe commented. The two friends heard the door opening behind them and they got up to see the security guard that left the room before.

"Who are you? You're not employees here!" the guard demanded to know. Before Max or Chloe could explain themselves, he ran for a red button on the wall that was programmed to activate the security alarm.

"NO!" Max shouted before holding out her right arm and opening up her hand, just moments before the button was about to be pressed. Max then focused as hard as she could and then rewound time to before the guard walked in on them. After going back in time for a few additional minutes, she stopped and everything began moving like normal again.

"Chloe?" Max said, catching her friend's attention.

"Yeah?" Chloe replied.

"That guard who was here before's gonna come back and set off the alarm once he's caught us. You think you can stand by the door and take care of him once he shows up?" asked Max. Chloe was confused at how Max knew that was going to happen for a minute, but then she smirked and placed her hands on her hips.

"You used your rewind, didn't you?" Chloe asked.

"Guilty as charged, Ms. Price" Max replied before sitting back down at the desk and began flipping through the monitors again. This made Chloe smile, knowing Max was using her powers again, made it feel like October 2013 where they reunited and began using her gift to have fun and solve the mystery of Rachel's disappearance before the storm.

"Great to have you back, Super-Max. I'll take care of him, don't worry" Chloe said as she walked over to the side of the door and held her gun like a battering ram. Max kept on flipping through the monitors until she finally managed to see what she was looking for, the poor white furred monster looking sad and softly sobbing in the middle of a cold metal cell with no windows.

"Gotcha. Don't cry, buddy. We're coming to get ya" Max said before hearing the door behind her open. That could only mean the guard that caught them before she used her rewind again had come back.

"Lights out, Sergeant stupid!" Chloe said before butting the end of her gun directly into the guard's face. The goon fell to the ground and Chloe kicked him in the side of the head to make sure he stayed knocked out.

"Forget Max Caulfield: Super-Spy. Super-Max Returns would make a much better movie" said Chloe as she dragged the unconscious armed guard into a metal locker in the other end of the room and locked him inside.

"Still wouldn't sell enough tickets though" Max replied jokingly.

"You find our furry new friend?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah. It's right down the hall and to the left. But the only problem is, it's right next door to the science lab. And our redheaded psycho stalker friend is talking on the phone with somebody in there" Max said, pointing to one of the monitors. Chloe took a look and saw she was right, Zara was there.

"How are we going to get her out?" Max asked. Chloe then walked over to the desk and noticed a landline telephone plugged into the wall. There was also a note-pad with phone numbers on them, the place or name of whoever they belonged to was above the numbers themselves. Chloe looked back at the screen to see Zara hanging up the phone and writing down some notes before looking back down at the book in her hands and then back to Max.

"You up for some prank calls, Mad-Max?" Chloe asked as she took the notepad into her hands.

"Heck yeah. It's gonna be just like when we were kids. Look around for the digits for the science lab" said Max while she held her hand over the phone, prepared to pick it up and dial the number once Chloe found it.

"Bingo. Found it" Chloe said before taking a yellow highlighter pen off the desk and highlighted the number she was looking for. Max then looked to her left as Chloe set the notepad back down and point her index finger at the highlighted number.

"There it is. I have the perfect idea for this" Max whispered as she picked the phone up and dialed the number before pressing the 'Call' button and held the phone up to her ear. Chloe began attempting to hold back some laughs, even covering her mouth with both her hands. Chloe then saw on the floor that the name-tag belonging to the guard she just knocked out was still there. She picked it up and placed it next to Max.

"Just in case she asks who's speaking. Go with the name of the guy who almost set the alarm on our butts before you used your rewind to stop him" Chloe told her.

"Thanks" she whispered before looking down at the name-tag itself. Max then watched on the monitor as Zara picked up the phone and answered it.

"Burnish Industries science labs, this is Dr. Zara" she answered.

"Dr. Zara, this is Bolin in the surveillance room" Max said, doing her best to disguise her voice to make it sound like the guard's voice.

"Oh, yes. Can I help you with something then, Bolin?" Zara asked.

"I was watching the cameras down in the ground level parking garage and I noticed that one of our staff who just clocked out just backed their car into yours" said Max, still pretending to be Bolin. On the monitor, Zara jumped out of her seat and her eyes going wide.

"WHAT!?" she exclaimed into the phone. Max and Chloe did their best not to laugh. The two got flashbacks to when they were younger and played prank calls together on the neighborhood back when they were preteens in Arcadia Bay.

"W-Who did it?" asked Zara on the other line.

"I believe it was the janitor. Keep forgetting his name though, uh..." Max said, struggling to think of a name for her story to make Zara leave the lab.

"Was it Jerry?" Zara asked.

"Jerry! Yeah, yeah. That's who it was. It was Jerry" Max replied. The two watched with wide grins as Zara went wide-eyes and began breathing through her nose very slowly.

"Can you hold for just one moment, please?" Zara asked before pressing a button on her own landline phone and hung the phone up before standing up and letting out a loud yell.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, JERRY!" she screamed furiously. Max and Chloe snickered at how loud her yelling was. They could hear it all the way from where they were right now.

"Oh my God that was loud. I could hear it echo all the way out here" Chloe said while trying her best to contain her laughter. Zara then sat back down and picked the phone back up.

"Forgive me. Before I go down there, please tell me something. How bad's the damage?" Dr. Zara asked.

"Pretty bad. The entire front of the car has been trashed. The hood's all dented up, the grill as well. One of the headlights popped out and hanging by the wires too. A few cracks are in the windshield too" Max told her.

"What was going through his mind when he was doing this!? Is he blind!?" Zara exclaimed into the phone.

"I think he might actually be drunk" Max answered.

"Jerry? Drinking on the job? Oh I am so going to have him fired after this! And to think he's been with us for five years!? I'm going to give that drunk schmuck a piece of my mind! Where is he now?" Zara asked.

"Still in the parking garage. He just got out his car and is stumbling. He looks like he can barely walk a straight line" replied Max.

"Thank you so much for telling me this, Bolin. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to march down there, grill Jerry and question where he keeps his liquor in this building. Goodbye" said Zara before hanging up. Now Max and Chloe snickered and giggled at how successful and funny their prank call turned out.

"Alright. She's just leaving the lab. We should make our way over to the cell before she makes it to the elevator" said Max as she picked up her helmet and placed it back over her head.

"Good idea. It'll give us plenty of time before she comes back" Chloe said as she put her own helmet back on and handed Max her gun. Once Chloe picked her weapon back up, they both left the surveillance room and walked down the hall to get to the creature's holding cell. Halfway down the hall, Zara walked right past them, muttering spite-filled swear words as she walked with a fiery rage in her eyes. Max and Chloe kept on walking past her to avoid suspicion, but looked back once she turned to the right and continued walking down the hall.

"Jeebus, I don't even think I've seen my mom that mad" Max whispered before the two friends continued walking. They turned to the left and kept on walking until they got to a large metal armored door. The door itself looked like doors on Military aircraft carrier ships like the Midway, combined with a bank vault door.

"Bingo, this is it. Now all we gotta do is figure out how to unlock it" Max whispered as she stared at the door through her helmet's visor.

"Might not be as easy as you think, Max. Look" Chloe said while pointing to the left side of the door. A keypad wired into the wall containing only numbers was all that kept the door locked and secure. Max groaned in annoyance once she saw that, this only meant a four-digit Digi-Code could unlock the door.

"Damn. Guess I didn't really expect that" Max swore out loud.

"I kinda wish this was "National Treasure" right now so we could wave a UV-light over this thing and see which keys to press" Chloe said as she stared at the pad. Max then saw that Zara left the science lab unlocked and there was an open cabinet containing lots of chemicals and supplies that someone would usually find in a high school chemistry classroom. Max then took her phone out from her pocket and read through her old texts with her classmate, Warren Graham and found what she was looking for.

"What's that?" Chloe asked when she noticed Max scrolling through her texts.

"Helpful chemistry hints from Warren. I asked on some help on how to make a makeshift bomb when we were trying to break into Principal Wells' office. It worked but the alarms went off after the explosion, so I used my rewind and found another way in. I think the blast will be strong enough to destroy the keypad if we make another one" explained Max before she crept over to the science lab.

"I'll keep watch. Good luck, Max" said Chloe as she laid her back against the door to act like she was guarding the cell to avoid anyone asking questions or getting suspicious. Now, Max was raiding the drawers looking for everything she needed to make a makeshift bomb. On the list there were sugar, a soda can, duct tape, and sodium chlorate. Max saw that Zara had an unopened can of Monster Energy Drink sitting on her desk and it was one of the tall cans, so she took that instead of buying a soda from the vending machine. Max also found duct tape on Zara's desk right next to it, so she took that after seeing sugar and sodium chlorate in the cabinet.

"Okay. Now we're cooking" Max whispered as she walked out the lab with all the items in her arms. Once she returned, Max opened the energy drink and then poured the sugar and sodium chlorate into it before duct taping it to the keypad. Max had also taken some string from the lab to make a makeshift fuse.

"Alright, Chloe. Care to light us up?" she asked.

"No problem at all, MacGyver" Chloe replied before taking out a cigarette lighter and setting the string ablaze once the flame was strong.

"Quick. Hide in the lab for cover!" Max said before grabbing Chloe's wrist and running back into the lab, hiding behind one of the walls close to the lab door. After a loud BOOM! the two went back outside and saw that the makeshift bomb did the trick, the keypad was blown to smithereens and the door was creaked halfway open. Max went inside first and saw the creature shaking in the corner and whimpering.

"Crap. The explosion must have scared him" Chloe said as she looked at how scared the poor thing was. Both girls took their helmets off to reveal their faces to the creature to show that they were not really guards. When Max took off her helmet, the creature stopped looking scared and instead calmly approached her. Max held her left arm up with her palm open, nervous as to what it was doing. Instead of attacking her, the creature gently hummed and allowed Max's hand to touch it's face, right in between it's blue eyes.

"Max, I think... I think it recognizes you" said Chloe, who was in awe at what she was seeing. She expected it to attack her best friend, but instead it was almost acting like a puppy who only wanted affection from it's owner.

"You may be right. I think it recognizes me as the one they've been sending their cries for help to" Max whispered as she began to pet the beast gently, which made it smile.

"Hey buddy. We're here to break you outta here. You wanna come with us?" Max asked. The beast then did something she didn't expect, it nodded with a large grin on it's face. Chloe's eyes went wide and her hands covered her mouth in shock.

"It just replied to you. Like it understood you. Max, this is the single coolest thing I've ever seen in my life" Chloe said in absolute amazement.

"Glad to see I still surprise you. Now we better get out of here and get back into that truck before Zara finds out we lied" said Max. Chloe only nodded and the two put their helmets back on. Max held out her hand, and the creature let it hold onto one of it's massive fingers. Chloe went ahead holding her gun as if she was ready to open fire on something or someone. The easy part of the plan was over, now it was time for the hard part... breaking back out without being noticed.

* * *

**A/N: Phew, part one of episode two is finally complete. It legit took me four whole days to complete this update, and I'm happy I took the time with it too. Now the mysterious monster has been rescued from it's cell, but can they get out without being spotted by the sadist Zara and the other guards in the Burnish compound. You'll find all that out in Episode two part two! Please review, thanks!**


	7. Breakout: Part 2

**A/N: I hope everyone loved the last installment of Life is Abominable, because we're about to revisit Max and Chloe as their adventure in China continues. I'm going to say, I didn't think I was going to have to fit the second half of the last update in this chapter. My original plan was to have the entire breakout scene take place in the last chapter, but it was getting a little too long that I decided putting it in here won't do any harm. So, let's begin shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max and Chloe wake up close to midnight and sneak out of Yi's apartment to go to the Burnish research facility complex in order to rescue the captive creature that is the cause of Max's visions. After the two stole some uniforms from a couple guards they knocked down, they manage to lure Dr. Zara out of the lab and destroy the lock on the beast's cell door. Max has only had to use her rewind once to stop one other guard from setting off the alarm and alerting the entire facility to their presence. The creature has now been rescued, and immediately trusts Max after she revealed her face to it, recognizing her as the one receiving it's cries for help. Now the three must sneak out of the compound without being caught..._

* * *

**Burnish Industries Research Facility. 12:24 AM**

Chloe was still leading ahead with her gun raised, ready to fire at anybody who would set off the alarm if they were spotted. Max gently walked behind her, still holding onto the beast's large chubby finger as she walked. Max was able to memorize the path they took to get to the cell, and so she was able to tell Chloe where to go based on her memory. Chloe then stopped and put her back against the wall before holding her gun up and turning around the corner.

"We're clear. Let's keep moving" Chloe said as she continued to walk slowly, not lowering her gun as she kept on going. Max could feel her heartbeat go faster the slower they walked. She was anxious about getting caught by Zara or one of the armed goons they took their uniforms from. She then turned her head back when she heard the creature whimper nervously. Max couldn't bare to see the poor thing afraid like that, so she decided to reassure it.

"Hey. There's nothing to be scared of. Chloe and I are right here, and we're not going to let them put you back in that cell. We promise" Max said in a calm and loving voice. The beast was now smiling again and let out a small hum to show it was happy. With comfort and reassurance provided, and the creature's spirits lifted, Max looked back to speak to Chloe.

"How far along are we to the loading bay?" Max asked.

"Not too far. We just gotta keep going straight until we get to those large doors" Chloe said as she kept her eyes fixed on said doors.

"We should hurry. It's not going to take long for Zara to realize that call we sent out about her car being trashed by the drunk janitor was fake" Max replied. Just as they were about to go through the doors, all three of them heard a loud 'Ding' noise and they looked to the right to see Zara exiting the elevator. The minute she saw the creature outside it's cell, she marched over to them looking angrier than the last time they saw her.

"Who are you and why is the Yeti out of it's cell!?" she exclaimed. Chloe held up her gun, ready to open fire on Zara. Max, nervous about every single member of the facility's security team coming after them if she allowed Chloe to kill Zara in Rachel Amber's name, or if she triggered the alarm like the last guy almost did, raised her right arm up and opened her hand. Time began to go backwards, and Max watched as Zara walked backwards into the elevator, and Chloe and their white furred friend walking backwards to the hallway they were in before. Max then lowered her hand and time began moving at normal speed again.

"Chloe! Run!" Max shouted.

"Max? How did you get over there so fast? Did you just rewind again?" Chloe asked in surprise.

"Hurry! Zara's coming!" Max exclaimed with a sense of urgency in her voice. Now the blue-haired girl could tell Max was being serious and began to run.

"Come on big guy. Start running!" Chloe said to the creature, whom Max now knew was a Yeti. The two kept running until they ran right through the doors and shut them as fast as they could.

"Phew, that was scary" Max said as she felt blood come down from her nose, which was common whenever she rewound time longer than expected or did it one too many times.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Here, let me get that for you" Chloe said as she wiped the blood off Max's face. The two peeked out the windows of the doors they just walked through and watched as Zara walked down the hall and then turned to her left to walk back to the lab.

"That was close. Great job, Super Max" Chloe said, grateful she saved them from being spotted.

"Don't mention it. But we gotta move faster before she sees we broke this thing out of it's cell and sets off the alarm for real this time" Max said. Chloe only nodded in agreement before they began running towards the truck, with the Yeti following closely behind them, matching their speed as they kept on running. As soon as they were outside the hallway, and onto the loading dock, they saw the truck was still there.

"Great it's still there. I'll get started on hot-wiring this thing, you load fuzz-butt into the back" Chloe said before taking off her helmet and tossing it to the side as well as her gun before jumping into the driver's seat of the truck and shutting the door. Max calmly helped the Yeti into the back of the truck before shutting the back doors and locking them.

"Stay there, alright? You'll be safe here" Max calmly told the Yeti. The only reply it gave her was a lone nod to show it understood. Max then took off her helmet and removed her guard uniform that she stole, leaving her in the same outfit she wore before taking said uniform. The brunette girl then walked up to the shotgun seat and sat down before fastening her seat belt and began to watch as Chloe had exposed the inner workings of underneath the steering wheel with a pocket knife and then severing one of the wires in two before tapping the two severed ends together, creating sparks each time they did.

"Come on, come on, come on" Max whisper-shouted with urgency in her voice. Chloe tapped them together one last time, and the vehicle sprung to life. The dials on the dashboard were lit, and so was the radio. The heater had just turned on, and the engine was making a loud rumbling sound.

"YES! STILL GOT IT!" Chloe cheered before she put the truck in drive and pressed down on the gas pedal. They kept on driving up until they reached the toll booth at the back gate.

"Crap, toll booth. Is anybody in there?" Max asked. Chloe peeked her head out the open drivers-side window to see it was empty.

"No. Must've gone to use the toilet or maybe he's on a coffee break" Chloe said as she got back inside.

"Think we can plow through that barricade without setting off the alarm?" Max asked.

"Knowing how high tech this place is based on what we've seen... probably not" Chloe said. Max then undid her seat belt and got out the truck.

"I'll find the switch. Shouldn't take me that long" She said before shutting the door and running inside the booth and started to search all around. The inside of the booth was dirty and the desktops were littered with papers. She began to search until she finally found a red switch underneath one of the paper-covered desks. After flipping it, she ran back inside the truck and put her seat belt on.

"Nice job" Chloe complimented before pressing down on the gas pedal again and drove past the now lifted barricade.

"That turned out better than I thought it would. And, I only had to rewind twice" Max said with a relieved voice as she slumped back in her chair now that they were officially out of the building.

"We're not out of the woods yet, Maximus. We still have to get a good enough distance from the building so they can't see us until we get back to Yi's apartment building so we can get our new friend onto the roof" said Chloe as she had her eyes focused on the road. The sound of alarms and sirens going off startled them and they looked in the rear view mirrors to see that Zara found out about the breakout and set off the alarms.

"She found out" Max said nervously.

"Damn" Chloe said before stomping down on the gas pedal as hard as she could after changing gears on the truck. They were now speeding down the road to avoid being seen, and quickly turned a corner. The turn was so close, that something fell down in the back and landed on the Yeti's foot, which made it shout loudly and it began to cry in pain.

"Oh no" Max said, worried that the poor thing was hurt.

"Sorry" Chloe said with a sheepish look while still driving. Max undid her seat belt and ran to the back of the truck through the hatch door to comfort it.

"Shh, it's okay. Auntie Chloe didn't mean it" Max said in a soft voice while she gently caressed the foot that the crate fell on.

"So now I'm an Auntie? It's not even your kid, Max!" Chloe shouted while still driving.

"Just keep driving okay? I'm trying to make sure he doesn't draw attention to us!" Max called back before returning her attention to the Yeti's foot. She then began to make light and gentle 'Shh' noises, which did a good job in calming it down. Max then smiled when it stopped it's crying and began to wipe it's tears away with the sleeve of her black hoodie.

"No more, tears okay? C'mon, show me a smile" Max said before wiggling her fingers underneath the Yeti's chin. The light tickling made it giggle and start to smile.

"There we go. That's what I wanna see" she gently told it before giving it a gentle kiss right in between it's eyes, above it's nose, which made it giggle some more. Max's heart warmed knowing that the Yeti was happy and giggling. She then went back up to the front and sat down next to Chloe once again.

"How are we looking? Anyone from the compound following us?" Max asked.

"No. I think we managed to get out quick enough before the alarm got set" Chloe replied as she switched the gears again and began driving slower to the match the legal speed limit.

"Where should we park once we get back to the apartment? I mean, a giant black truck isn't exactly inconspicuous. It has "Stolen bad guy's vehicle" written all over it" Chloe asked.

"The alleyway close to Yi's apartment building. Hide it in the back where it's darkest, right next to the dumpsters. It'll blend right in" Max advised. Chloe nodded and turned gently this time so that the Yeti wouldn't get hurt by more falling cargo and made their back to where they were staying.

* * *

Once Chloe parked the truck in the alleyway, Max opened the back doors and helped the Yeti out before guiding over to the scaffolding. Chloe got out of the driver's seat but then Max held up her left arm to tell her to stop.

"What?" asked the blue haired girl.

"You're still wearing that guy's uniform" Max said. Chloe looked down and groaned to see she was right.

"Go disrobe in the truck and toss it into the dumpster when you're done. I'll meet you up on the roof" Max told her.

"Alright. Be careful when you're going up though, okay?" Chloe advised before walking back inside the stolen truck to get rid of the uniform. Max then walked in front of the Yeti and stopped as soon as they got to the scaffolding.

"Okay, buddy. We're going to have to climb all the way to the top. You understand? Climb?" Max asked. The Yeti nodded in reply. The brunette girl was so happy that this creature could understand her with ease made her job much easier. Max then walked up to the scaffolding and began to climb up the walls of the building, the Yeti eventually followed her after she was a good amount of distance from the ground. After a while, Max and the Yeti were on the rooftop of the apartment.

"There we go. You did good" Max said before giving the Yeti a gentle nuzzle on top of it's head, which earned a hum-like purr from it. Max then looked behind her to hear helicopter noises. There were black helicopters with the logo from Burnish Industries hovering above the city with spotlights shining down on the streets. Max knew Burnish or even Zara sent them out to look for the Yeti, so that meant she'd have to hide him fast.

"C'mon, let's get you safely hidden" Max said as she took the Yeti's large index finger into her hand and guided her large new friend to the large blanket and sheet-metal shed on the other side of the exit door that lead downstairs. Max then watched as the Yeti huddled into the corner and pulled it's legs close to it's chest.

"You'll be safe here, alright?" Max told it. The Yeti just nodded again. Now, Max had the opportunity to stare deep into it's beautiful blue eyes. She felt like the two of them were connected, like the two of them could tell how the other felt. Max suddenly felt a surge of energy flow into her, her nerves tingled at the sensation, it felt to Max like the Yeti was speaking to her. The two then turned their heads when they saw Chloe came in, wearing the outfit she was wearing before.

"You were right, this is a pretty good hiding place" Chloe said as she walked in.

"Mission accomplished, thanks so much for your help, partner in crime" Max said with a smile as she gave her friend a high-five.

"Anytime, partner in time. Glad to see you're not afraid to use your powers again" Chloe replied happily.

"Yeah, me too" Max replied while gently brushing a strand of hair behind her ear with her hand. The two humans began to hear the sound of frightened whimpering coming from inside the fort. Max ran inside as fast as she could to find the poor Yeti shaking and huddled against the corner like a scared little puppy.

"What are we going to do? We can't just leave it alone and afraid up on the roof like this" Chloe asked.

"Him" Max corrected.

"Wait, what?" Chloe asked, clearly confused as to what her friend had just told her.

"Him, it's a boy" said Max in a matter-of-fact like tone.

"How do you even know it's really a boy?" asked Chloe, still confused.

"He told me, alright?" Max said. Now Chloe was amazed, and couldn't help but want to know more.

"Told you? Wait, did he actually SPEAK to you?" Chloe asked.

"No, not physically, but... it felt like he was sending these signals into my head. And my nervous system was tingling all over, like it was responding to the telepathic messages he was sending me" Max explained to her blue-haired friend. She began to shudder and smile where she stood.

"Holy crap this is awesome! My best friend has telepathy too!?" she exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm not entirely sure what to call it. It's not telepathy it feels like... well, something else" Max replied.

"Well, whatever's the cause of this telepathic bond you two share, you have it. That's all that matters. But anyways, it's obvious we can't just leave him up here alone. He's too scared to be by himself, and he'll get caught again if he makes himself known when there's an entire private army after him. What are we gonna do?" asked Chloe. Max turned to the yeti who continued to whimper in fear before turning back to her blue haired friend.

"I'll stay up here with him. I'll make sure he stays out of sight and keep him calm until the morning" Max told her.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Chloe asked, wanting to make sure Max knew what she was doing.

"I'll be fine. Just go back down to Yi's apartment and go to sleep so that we don't raise any suspicion. I'll see you in the morning and we can figure out what we're gonna do from there" said Max. Chloe only nodded before giving Max a hug goodnight and walked over to the door that lead back down to the indoor area of the complex. Now, it was just Max and the yeti on the roof alone. Max walked over and held her left hand up in front of her as she slowly approached the quivering white creature.

"It's alright, buddy. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. You can trust me, Chloe too. We're going to keep you safe, alright?" Max said, reassuring the yeti that she didn't mean him any harm. He began to lower his guard and smile at her. Max smiled in response to this and gave his shoulder a gentle rub for comfort. What he did next was unexpected, he pulled Max closer towards him into a giant hug before lying down on it's back. Max was now comfortably resting on the Yeti's fuzzy white chest.

"Aww, thanks for the hug big guy" said Max as the side of her face lied where the Yeti's heart was. She didn't think anything could sound so calming and beautiful, let alone a simple heartbeat, but there was something different about the Yeti's heartbeat. Max then looked up at the small opening through the blanket-fort's walls to see an electronic billboard with a beautiful image of the Himalayas on the screen. She then got an idea after seeing the image, she needed to give the Yeti a nickname to go by to not only lessen confusion between her and Chloe on what to call him, but to help him feel more safer around them too.

"Goodnight... Everest" Max whispered while rubbing comforting circles into his chest and closer her heavy eyes and a small smile appeared on her face. The creature smiled at the name he had been given, Everest gave a gentle hum as a way of saying "Goodnight" to her before he closed his eyes and went to sleep himself.

* * *

**The Next Morning. 7:52 AM**

Chloe was the first to wake up out of everyone else in the apartment. She knew Max and the Yeti they rescued last night needed something to eat, and they couldn't exactly just come downstairs and enjoy breakfast in a room full of people that never seen a white fluffy creature before. So, she swapped her clothes from last night for a simple white tee shirt with a black and gray illustration of a human heart on the front with two slits on the sleeves of the shirt that exposed her skin, black skinny jeans, and a pair of canvas shoes Max gave her as a gift for her birthday last year. Now, she was in the kitchen making some food for everyone.

"Smells just like I'm back at Two Whales" Chloe said to herself while she cooked. She decided to take a page from her mother's book and make her specialty dish she always made at the Two Whales Diner in Arcadia Bay, the Bigfoot Bacon Omelette. She checked the fridge first to be sure they had the proper ingredients to make them, as well as enough eggs too. Now, she had made more than enough omelettes for everyone to enjoy. One for her, one for Max, one for the Yeti, one for Yi, one for her mother, and one for Nai Nai as well.

"Looks delicious" Chloe heard a voice say from behind her. She turned around to see Yi's mother with her purse around her shoulder, all ready for work at the kitchen counter.

"Thanks. My mom was a waitress and cook at a small diner back in Arcadia Bay where Max and I used to live. This was her specialty dish. It's the Bigfoot Bacon Omelette. Go ahead, try one" Chloe said with a smile as she placed Max's omelette on a plate and placed the Yeti's right next to her's. Yi's mother then cut a big piece off the delicious dish and placed it in her mouth.

"Mmm. This is so good. I didn't know something like this could be so good" said Yi's mother with her mouth full while she was eating.

"Thanks. Guess I get my cooking skills from my mom. Now I'm happy to know I've successfully brought the taste of Two Whales to Shanghai" said Chloe as she placed the frying pan and spatula into the sink and began washing them off with some water from the faucet.

"So, is Yi up yet?" asked Chloe.

"Not yet. I think she's still getting ready to go someplace. Nai Nai's in the shower" Yi's mother told her. Chloe then took her plate and Max's plate into her hands before walking over towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Yi's mother, curious about why she was heading out with her breakfast.

"Up to the roof. Max said she was getting up early to take some pictures of the sunrise. I'm gonna bring up her omelette so she doesn't have to pause her little photography session" said Chloe.

"Alright, tell her I said good morning" Yi's mother said, buying Chloe's lie before resuming eating her own omelette. The blue haired girl then exited the apartment and began making her way up to the roof.

* * *

**A/N: The escape was a success! Hooray! And yes, Max is the one who gives Everest his name in this AU. It seems like he's taken a liking to Max, and he trusts her with his life. Now, Chloe's coming up to the roof with breakfast. But, what'll happen now that the breakout mission was successful and Burnish Industries along with their sadistic stalker friend Doctor Zara are looking for them? Find out in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	8. Breakout: Part 3

**A/N: Welcome everyone! I am super excited to post an all new chapter to Max and Chloe's adventure with their new friend Everest! And it's going to get even better from there because the story continues right now! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Last night, Max and Chloe successfully managed to break into the Burnish Research Facility where the mysterious creature causing Max's visions was being held captive. Zara almost caught them in the act, but were able to evade capture thanks to Max's rewind. The two hijacked a Burnish truck and managed to escape before the building's alarm system sounded off and alerted everyone that the creature was gone. Max, now realizing that the creature they have rescued is a Yeti, fully understands she has a telepathic bond with him, and has given him the name "Everest". Now that Burnish employees are out looking for them, Max and Chloe must think of a plan in order to keep Everest from being captured once again..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 8:00 AM**

Chloe made her way to the roof of the apartment complex, the two plates containing the Bigfoot Bacon Omelettes she had just cooked sill in her hands being carefully balanced to avoid them falling off. Once she got to the top, she saw that Max and the Yeti were still inside the blanket fort they slept in last night. Max was gently scratching behind his ears, which made him tap his foot on the floor like a dog would.

"Morning you two. Bet you guys are hella hungry, huh?" Chloe asked as she sat down and crossed her legs on the floor before handing Max her plate and took some silverware out of her back pocket she was able to sneak onto the roof without Yi's mother noticing. Max then stopped what she was doing and got super excited when she saw what was on the plate and sat down right next to Chloe.

"Oh my dog, Chloe... it's been YEARS since I've had this omelette" Max said happily as she took a knife and fork from her blue-haired friend's hands.

"I know. I figure I'd try cooking it while we were here. I'm just lucky Yi's family had all the ingredients I needed in the fridge" Chloe replied as she watched Max devour her omelette slowly, savoring every bite and it's delicious taste.

"Mmm! It's still as delicious since the last time I had this dish. And that was when I was thirteen" Max said with her mouth slightly full of her omelette. A loud rumbling caught the two girls' attention and they turned their heads to see Everest's stomach growling, and both his hands placed on his belly as he whimpered with glossy eyes.

"Aww, you're hungry aren't you, Everest?" asked Max as she scooched closer towards Everest.

"Everest? Is that what you call him?" asked Chloe in confusion.

"Yeah, I thought it suited him" Max replied before cutting off a piece of the other omelette and held it up to Everest with her fork.

"You want it? It's really yummy" asked Max as she held her fork up. Everest looked at it in confusion and sniffed it before smiling with his eyes closed and letting out a small hum of delight.

"That's right. Have a bite" Max gently encouraged him. Everest then took the fork into his mouth and ate the omelette that was resting on top of it. Everest then licked his lips and let out a gentle "mmm" to show he loved what he just ate.

"I think he likes it, Max" said Chloe.

"I think you may be right, Chloe. Hold on, let me try something" Max replied before cutting off another piece of the omelette and held it up with her fork again. Max decided to test her newly formed telepathic bond with Everest, she needed to understand the extent of this bond and how it worked, and she figured the best way to figure that out was to experiment with it a little bit. She then held the fork out again.

"You like it don't you?" she asked Everest. But she didn't ask that question with her voice, she said it in her thoughts. Everest nodded happily, which surprised Max. She then smiled at this and decided to speak with her thoughts once again to confirm this was real.

"You want some more? The one right next to mine's just for you. You want it?" Max asked. Everest nodded excitedly with more enthusiasm in reply to her offer of more food. Max nodded back and fed Everest the piece of omelette on her fork. She then looked to Chloe who was now in complete awe at what she was witnessing.

"That was amazeballs. I got chills on the back of my neck. You and Everest have a genuine telepathic bond! First time powers and now the power to communicate with mystical creatures using your thoughts? This is the greatest thing ever!" Chloe said as she watched Max feed Everest some more.

"I still have no idea why he chose me though. I mean, he needed help getting out of that giant prison, but... there's gotta be another reason as to why I was chosen" Max said as she continued to feed Everest his omelette.

"Hmm, that's a hella good question Mad-Max. Why not just ask him?" Chloe suggested. Max gave one lone nod, it was a pretty good suggestion. Eventually, Everest finished the last bite of his omelette and his hunger was satisfied. The yeti then began rubbing his now full belly in delight that was shown with a wide smile on his face. Max then put the plate down next to Chloe and began asking questions using her thoughts.

"Where are you from?" asked Max. Everest turned his head to the small opening through the blanket walls and pointed up to a billboard showing the Himalayas. Chloe looked to see the billboard and walked up next to Max.

"Is that where you come from?" asked Chloe.

"Is that your home?" Max asked in her mind. Everest nodded and began to look sad. Max became shocked and covered her mouth as she gasped.

"Oh my God. Chloe, he was taken away from his home. That's why he chose me, he wants me to take him home" said Max in realization, but then she remembered something.

"Wait... when we ran into Zara before I used my rewind, she said something. She said "Why is the Yeti out of it's cell?". Chloe, I think Everest is a Yeti" Max told her blue haired friend. Chloe was now gasping and a huge smile appeared on her face.

"Are you serious? We're actually in the presence of a real life Yeti? This is the greatest moment of my life!" Chloe cheered.

"Chloe, calm down. We don't want anyone else hearing on this conversation alright? Besides, Burnish and Zara could still be looking for him" said Max. Chloe then cleared her throat and scratched behind her head.

"Oh, right. Sorry about that. But anyways... if we're gonna get fluff-butt back home we need a plan. We can't just buy plane tickets to the Himalayas and expect everyone to not freak out because a Yeti's sitting in coach with them" she explained. Max knew Chloe was right, they needed a discreet plan to get Everest out of Shanghai without being spotted. Max then looked out into the distance and spotted a large shipping port with gigantic boats and ships docked closely.

"I have an idea. But first I need to go out to that port all the way over there and get some information" Max said with her finger pointed all the way out to the port in the distance so Chloe could see.

"Alright. Anything you need me to do while you're out?" asked Chloe.

"I need you to stay up here on the roof and watch over Everest. Make sure he doesn't leave that small fort under any circumstances and make sure he behaves. And while you're at it, I need you to do some research on this Burnish guy. Find anything in his background that gives some form of explanation as to why he'd resort to kidnapping a Yeti and holding it against it's will" Max replied. Chloe had a serious look on her face and gave one nod.

"You can count on me, Super-Max. If you say this'll help us get Everest home, then I'll do whatever you ask. I trust you" Chloe told her. Max then walked up to Everest again and spoke to him using her telepathic bond.

"I'm going to be leaving to do something. Auntie Chloe's gonna take care of you while I'm gone. Will you promise to be a good boy for Auntie Chloe?" she asked. Everest then sat down like a dog before nodding and smiling.

"Alright then, I'll see you two later" Max said with her voice. Chloe then stopped her before she could walk away.

"Hey uh... before you go, maybe you should swap clothes. You're still wearing your Oceans Eleven outfit from last night" Chloe said, pointing out her clothes were the same ones from their escape mission.

"Oh right, thanks Chloe" Max said before giving her a hug and walking over to the edge of the building. Once she had climbed down the scaffolding, she sneaked into Yi's room and made her way across the hall to the room she and Chloe shared. She then swapped the outfit she had on now for the white t-shirt with an abstract picture of some silhouettes inside a picture frame, a red flannel shirt that was lightly torn at one of the shoulders, as well as some ripped skinny jeans. It was the outfit that once belonged to Rachel Amber that she was given by Chloe when she stayed the night at her house.

"That's better. Now I don't look so suspicious" Max said to herself as she placed the strap of her camera bag across her shoulder before exiting the room. The apartment was now empty, Yi, her mother, and Nai Nai were not there. The young brunette then exited through the front door and walked all the way down the stairs before she made her way outside.

"Alright, that port looks pretty close to the Burnish building. So I'll just take the same route from before only I'll take a left instead of a right" Max said to herself as she began to cross the street. The long walk had now just begun, and she noticed there were armed guards she recognized from the Burnish compound all over the place, asking individuals if they had seen anything suspicious. She could only guess they were out looking for Everest.

"Guess our little escape plan from last night didn't go unnoticed. I just have to look like I'm minding my own business and keep on walking like I haven't seen anything. If I look at any of those guys the wrong way I'm so screwed" Max thought to herself as she did her best to not make contact with any of the guards and kept on moving forwards down the sidewalk. After a few blocks she came across Yi lifting up a large garbage bag into a dumpster next to a food establishment.

"Uh, hi Yi" Max said as she now stood behind the young teen. Yi turned around to see her new foreign friend and smiled.

"Max, hi there. Didn't expect to see you here" said Yi.

"Me neither. I was just taking a walk" Max replied.

"Hey, that breakfast Chloe made, that was so delicious! I didn't know anything could taste so good" Yi complimented.

"Yeah, she gets it from her mom. Everyone in Arcadia Bay loved her cooking, it's why the Two Whales Diner was such a popular eating spot" Max explained.

"I'll bet, wish I could have seen it. Hey uh, how about tonight I give you that tour? I just have some things to finish up here and after I get myself cleaned up I'll take you and Chloe out to see some really nice places?" Yi offered.

"That actually sounds great. I'll let Chloe know as soon as I get back" Max replied before she saw a gas mask that a garage worker would wear when applying new paintjobs onto cars lying next to the dumpster on the floor.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?" Max asked Yi as she picked the mask up and handed it to her.

"Sure, what is it?" asked Yi, curious as to what it was.

"Can you wear that mask and stand right in front of those piles of garbage bags right there? I think it would make a really good photo" Max said as she took her Polaroid Spectra out of her bag.

"Sounds pretty artistic actually. I like it! Sure, I'll do it for ya" Yi said before putting the mask on and standing in front of the garbage bags. She didn't make any poses or anything, she just stood as still as a plank for the camera in front of the garbage bags with flies surrounding them. Max then got in the right position and took the shot. Once the photo was printed, she shook it to make it develop faster and put it and her camera back in her bag.

"Thanks, Yi. That's gonna look awesome" said Max as Yi walked up to her and took the mask off.

"No problem. I'm actually really starting to dig your form of photography. It's got it's own little charm to it, I like it" Yi told her. Max chuckled and blushed at the compliment.

"Thank you, Yi. But anyways, I have to get going. I'll see you tonight" Max said before waving her friend goodbye and continued her walk down the sidewalk. Once she got to the corner she took to get to the Burnish complex, she turned left and continued her way down to the shipping port when she saw a large ship at the very end of the road. Max had to walk about seven more blocks to get there, but she couldn't feel more relieved once she got there. She noticed that the security guard sitting at the booth that controlled entrances and exits was asleep with their hat covering his eyes.

"Heh, security isn't as tight here as it was back at the compound last night. Just makes my job all the more easier" Max said to herself as she crawled under the barricade bar and then stood back up before running as far away from the booth as possible. She also noticed there weren't really any guards on the lookout or on duty here.

"Security may be lax here, but I can't let my guard down. Even if I get caught I can just rewind and it's like it never happened" Max said as she began looking around for anything that could tell her of any departing ships that were to leave soon. Max then spotted a small shack sitting at the very end of the port, and right next to it was a bulletin board with some papers and fliers pinned to it.

"My best guess is that all the future departure dates for all the other ships are right on that board. I just gotta find the right document and take notes" Max said as she began to speed-walk all the way to the other end of the port. After she got there, she peeked into the shed to see if anyone was inside, but it was totally empty.

"Probably went to use the bathroom or get something to eat. I better take advantage of this opportunity while I can before they get back" Max whispered as she slowly pulled her head out the doorway and then made her way to the bulletin board. She was now face to face with several documents and pieces of paper. She kept on looking through several of them, one of them was a wanted poster for someone who was on the run from the law for bank robbery in Beijing, and another one of them was a newspaper article of a police officer being injured in some kind of freak accident that destroyed an entire block of a neighborhood in Seattle last year, and now police are looking for Sean and Daniel Diaz, whom lost their father before the explosion because their father who tried to resolve the situation was shot by the officer who was injured.

"Those poor boys. I hope they're doing alright" Max whispered in empathy for the boys mentioned in the article. She then found a document containing what she was looking for, attached onto the board in staples on the edges.

"Bingo. Now let's see which ship leaves sooner" said Max as she looked up and down on the paper. All of them were scheduled to leave four or five days from now, some of them for next week. She then spotted a ship that was leaving tomorrow at 8:10 PM.

"Alright, it's a ship carrying a shipment of soda. Departure point: Shangai China at 8:10 PM" Max read to herself out loud.

"This is perfect. We'll have to make it there without being spotted though. I've got to show this to Chloe" Max said before pulling her journal out of her bag and opened it up. After taking out a black fine point sharpie pen, she wrote down all the details of the ship and every bit of information she needed in order to make their plan successful. Once everything was written down in the journal, she put it back in her bag and began running back to the port's exit. After exiting and make it back to the other side of the street, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She picked it up and saw it was Chloe calling, so she answered the call.

"Hey Chloe. How's Everest doing?" she asked.

"He's actually really well behaved. How's your trip to the port?" Chloe replied.

"Good, I found out there's a ship departing tomorrow night. It's going all the way to another port in Southern China. Chloe, it's perfect for helping us get Everest out of the city" said Max.

"Awesome sauce. But Max, I did my research on Burnish like you asked and the stuff I found was hella strange" Chloe told her.

"How strange are we talking?" asked Max.

"Like, old crazy rich dude who's out of his damn mind strange. The guy used to be a famous explorer, he pretty much traveled all over China and discovered so many rare exotic animals that people actually began PAYING him for all his research on his findings. But when he began insisting mythical creatures like Yetis exist because he saw one on his latest expedition to Mount Everest, he lost all credibility and nobody took him seriously anymore. Nobody hears anything from him anymore, the dude's a total recluse Max" Chloe told her.

"Add that with Emily Zara who's got sadistic personality disorder and is a psychotic stalker, that's a deadly combination. What if they want to do the same thing to him?" Max added.

"I know. It makes me glad we saved him when we did. We gotta figure out a way to get onto that ship without being spotted by Burnish and his goons" replied Chloe on the other line. Max then looked across the street and saw a hardware store right below another apartment complex.

"Hey, Chloe. What's the color of the truck we drove out of the Burnish compound last night?" asked Max.

"I'd say it was a matte black. Why?" Chloe asked.

"I have a plan. But I'm going to have to buy some supplies to make it work. Could take me a while before I find all of them though. You fine with babysitting Everest until tonight?" Max explained.

"Yeah, sure. I can totally do that. I just hope this plan of yours is as brilliant as our breakout plan from last night" Chloe said.

"Don't worry, it will be. I promise. I'll see you tonight, okay?" Max replied.

"Alright. Be safe, Max. Bye" Chloe said before hanging up. Max then placed her phone back in her pocket and walked across the street to the hardware store.

* * *

**7:53 PM**

Shopping for all the supplies for her plan took a lot longer than Max anticipated. She was able to buy what she wanted from the hardware store she saw while she was on the phone with Chloe, which was two cans of matte black spray paint. But she couldn't find screwdrivers anywhere. No matter where she went, she couldn't find anyplace that sold or was fully stocked on screwdrivers. So she ended up having to improvise and bought a pocket knife sealed inside a plastic casing from a sporting goods store instead. She also bought two matching blue coverall suits and blank black baseball caps from a clothing store. And last but not least she bought some license plates with pre-printed words on them at an auto-part shop.

"Looks like I got everything I needed. Wasted a bunch of time trying to find screwdrivers though. At least everything I need to make sure this plan is successful is in my bags" Max said to herself and she began walking down the street to Yi's apartment complex. Deciding this time she'd come back up to the roof on the scaffolding to avoid looking suspicious to any of Burnish's men who were still out on the street looking for Everest. She then made it across the street to avoid making contact with any of the armed goons and made it to where the scaffolding began.

"Whew that was close. Now, to start climbing and tell Chloe my plan" Max said to herself as she began to climb up, but when she got to the fifth floor of the complex, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and she stopped to answer the call.

"Chloe? What's wrong?" asked Max. She could hear roaring and a girl screaming in the background.

"Max! It's Yi! She came up unannounced to practice her violin and she saw Everest. She's attacking him out of fear and he's scared. Max, hurry! I need help!" Chloe exclaimed on the other end of the phone. Max was now worried that Everest was exposed to the first friend they made in China and Yi was attacking him because she was scared out of her mind.

"I'm climbing up the scaffolding. I'm on my way right now" Max said before hanging up and picking up the pace on her climbing until she got to the top floor. Once her feet were safely onto the roof, she dropped her bags and ran over to Yi who was swinging her violin at Everest like it was a baseball bat.

"Yi! Stop it!" Max exclaimed as she stood in front of her while Everest was crying and whimpering in the blanket fort.

"Stop? There's a giant monster on my roof and you want me to stop!?" Yi asked in outrage.

"He's not a monster. He's just scared. Put the damn violin down, alright Yi? There's no need for violence" Max said in defense of Everest. Yi then lowered the violin down and began to take calm deep breaths to help herself cool off. Max then went inside the blanket fort and saw that Everest had a hand on his forehead above his right eye and Chloe was trying to comfort the crying Yeti.

"Chloe, what happened?" Max asked in worry as she speed-walked up to Everest. She began feeling this new sensation in her heart when she saw the Yeti in pain, it wasn't from her telepathic bond with him though, it was different.

"Yi was swinging her violin around like a maniac at Everest. When she swung it at him the fourth time, it hit him right on the forehead" Chloe explained in a distressed tone of voice. She was glad Max was here to help resolve the problem. Max turned her head around to face Yi who had just walked into the fort and now had a look on her face that usually a child would have when they know they did something wrong and were about to be yelled at by their parents.

"You HIT HIM!?" Max exclaimed in outrage.

"I didn't know he was with you. I-I-I'm so sorry, Max" Yi said with a frightened tone of voice. Max was furious right now, but she knew being angry would help make Everest feel better. She needed to give comfort to him and treat his hurt forehead. Max then walked up to Everest and began to rub the space in between his eyes in a comforting .

"Shh, it's okay. I know it hurts, buddy" Max said in a very calm and nurturing voice. It worked and got Everest to stop sobbing, but tears were still falling down from his eyes. She then got the idea to try comforting him using her telepathy.

"I know Yi hurt you. I'm going to help make the pain go away, alright?" Max thought while she placed a hand on his shoulder and began to rub up and down.

"Can I see where she hit you?" Max politely thought while staring into Everest's beautiful blue eyes. Everest did as Max asked and removed his hand. There was no blood, but a tiny little bruise that Max knew would go away after a few minutes. Max then got closer and stood on her tip-toes and gave the area where Yi hit him a gentle kiss.

"Better?" Max asked out loud this time. Everest nodded in reply with glossy eyes with tears threatening to run down his face. Max then took the sleeve of her flannel and wiped them away like a handkerchief. Everest then began to nuzzle Max affectionately, and she only hugged the fluffy white Yeti back. Deciding this would be the perfect Polaroid moment, Chloe sneakily swiped Max's Polaroid out her bag and took a photo of the two of them sharing a loving and tender moment. Everest began to shake in fear when he saw the camera's flash.

"Don't worry, it's okay. Auntie Chloe just took a picture of us. Nothing bad happened, we're okay" Max said gently. Chloe on the other hand, just crossed her arms with a raised eyebrow.

"Why are you calling me AUNTIE Chloe? I already told you you're not his mom" Chloe said.

"I'm not so sure about that. Have you seen how they interacted with each other? Looks a lot like a mother/son relationship to me" Yi said in observation, not taking her eyes of the brunette girl and her metaphorical "Son". The sound of a helicopter flying above them sent their hearts racing and all looking at each other. This was so bad for all of them, they had to do their best to hide and quickly.

* * *

**A/N: Part 3 of this episode has finally concluded! So now Yi knows about Everest and Max has been able to figure out how her newly formed telepathic link with Everest works. And Max and Chloe have come up with a good plan to try and help Everest get home. And yes... Max is now Everest's "Unofficial" mother. But anyways, how are they going to avoid being detected? Find out when part 4 comes! Please review, thanks!**


	9. Breakout: Part 4

**A/N: Hey everyone! I hope everyone's ready to continue Life is Abominable Episode Two after the heart-pounding cliffhanger from Part 3 of the episode! Now things are starting to get even more intense as Max and Chloe's journey to help Everest get home continues. Alright, enough teasing, let's get right into part 4. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max has begun testing her limits with her newly formed telepathic bond with Everest, and discovers he can hear her thoughts and he replies to everything she asks and says to him without her having to speak at all. Chloe has also done some intense research on Mr. Burnish's past and discovered his delusive and reclusive nature and how much a deadly combination it could be with Dr. Zara on his team. Max formulates a plan to help sneak Everest out of the city without being noticed by Burnish and his men, and she learns of a ship that leaves Shanghai and lands at a port in Southern China tomorrow night. After grabbing supplies, Max walks in on Yi attacking Everest after discovering him on the rooftop of her apartment. Now, the three must do their best to hide as a Burnish helicopter hovers above them..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 8:02 PM**

The blanket walls of the fort began to blow in the wind that the helicopter's propeller was creating, and one of the corners fell down. Max, Chloe, and Yi's eyes widened in fear at this. If the walls continued to fall like this, Everest would be exposed and captured again.

"The walls aren't staying up!" Chloe shouted as she ran to try and put the blanket that fell back up, but the wind was too strong and blew it right out of her hand. Yi then got an idea and ran out the fort.

"Yi! Come back!" Max shouted.

"What the Hell is she doing, Max?" Chloe asked in confusion.

"I don't know!" Max replied as loudly as she could to make sure she could be heard over the helicopter propeller. The two of them then saw Yi came back with sheet metal that came from her shrine she made for her father and the map she wanted to follow to travel across China with and began placing them up where the fallen blankets had used to be.

"She's trying to help rebuild the fort" Max said to herself. It wasn't loud enough to be heard by Chloe but she allowed it to keep happening until all the walls were reinforced with the slabs of sheet metal that Yi had been providing for them. Max then turned to Everest and decided to speak using her thoughts since he could hear those instead of her voice over the helicopter.

"Stay hidden, okay? It'll go away soon" Max advised. Everest just cowered in the corner afraid that Burnish's men were going to find him, but he also knew Max and Chloe were not going to let that happen. After two minutes passed, the helicopter flew away and went to go search somewhere else. The three girls sighed in relief now that it was over, but Everest was still afraid. Max then walked over to the corner and began to pet behind his ears and use her telepathy to soothe him.

"Can you explain to me what's going on exactly? I mean, the cat's already out of the bag now, but... an explanation would still be nice" Yi asked. Chloe then looked to Max and gave her a lone nod, letting her know she'd take care of it. Max then continued to telepathically comfort the shaking Everest.

"Okay, since we came to China Max has been having these visions. These visions were coming from Everest, who chose her as the receiver of his cries for help. Burnish Industries is looking for him, and they're the ones who kidnapped him and took him away from his home in the Himalayas. Max and I broke him out last night, it wasn't easy but we did manage to pull it off. And now we were forming an escape plan to help Everest get home, but we need to get him out of the city without Burnish and his psychotic friend, Zara noticing us" Chloe explained. Yi nodded in reply, she didn't think this day could get any stranger than it was right now.

"Anything else I should know?" asked Yi. Chloe looked to Max who only nodded with a serious look on her face, telling her it was okay for her to tell her about her powers.

"Yeah, actually. Max has the power to rewind time, it's how we were able to avoid being seen inside Burnish's compound that was holding Everest captive and redo any mistakes in the plan we may have made" Chloe added.

"Time powers? Yetis? Telepathy? This is one strange day" said Yi in reply with her hands on her temples.

"I know it seems weird but it's the truth, Yi" Max said as she finished comforting Everest and walked next to Chloe to join her in explaining the situation.

"After everything I've seen so far... I believe you guys" Yi replied, which made Max and Chloe's eyes widen in shock. They were not expecting her to believe them so quickly.

"You do?" Max asked.

"I mean, yeah. The Yeti, I mean, Everest was quite a bit of a shocker for me, but I accepted it pretty quickly the more I looked at him. And if Yetis are real, I'd have no trouble believing having the power to rewind time and telepathy are real too" Yi explained. Max and Chloe felt even more relieved than before. Now they didn't have to worry about Yi thinking they were crazy or run away to the police screaming and telling them about Everest. Max then decided to step closer to Yi and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Yi, listen. Everest is scared and doesn't know where he is. He just wants to go home, and Chloe and I only wanna help him get there. We could use your help if we're going to make sure this plan works. The more players on our team we have, the better chance of success we'll have" Max said, hoping that Yi would help them. Yi looked to Chloe who had her arms crossed and against her chest and gave her a nod, letting her know it was in her best interest to help them.

"Alright, I'll do whatever I can to help you get him home. Just tell me what the plan is" Yi said.

"Not yet. Everest's had too much excitement in one night. We're both pretty tired right now too. So we'll start talking about the plan first thing in the morning, agreed?" asked Max.

"Okay, good idea. I'll see you two in the morning" said Yi before walking over the scaffolding and climbing down to get to her bedroom. Max and Chloe then walked back to the blanket now turned sheet-metal fort to check up on Everest. The Yeti was now looking very tired and was struggling to keep his eyes open.

"You sleepy, big guy?" Chloe asked. Max then walked up to Everest and began to rub small circles above his nose.

"Shh, it's okay to be tired. We all need our sleep" Max said in her mind. Everest then lied down on his belly and folded his arms in front of him to use as a makeshift pillow. She then saw Chloe had taken the biggest blanket that used to serve as one of the walls of the fort before the helicopter blew it down and tossed one end over to Everest's other side to help keep him warm.

"Thanks, Chloe" Max whispered to her blue-haired friend. Max then looked to Everest and gave a small smile before nodding and looked up to Chloe.

"He said "Thank you, Auntie Chloe"" Max told her. Instead of retaliating to being called Auntie again, she looked to Max wide eyed.

"Wait, he just talked?" Chloe asked in bewilderment.

"I just read his thoughts. He's getting pretty used to calling you Auntie by now" Max said with a guilty smile and a nervous chuckle at the end of her sentence. Chloe just rolled her eyes and sat down on the concrete floor before leaning back against Everest's fluffy white fur like it was a gigantic beanbag chair. Max then smiled and sat down next to her and following what she did, only she rested her head on Chloe's shoulder, next to the crook of her neck.

"Sleep tight, Max" Chloe whispered before looking over to Everest.

"Goodnight, big guy. Don't let the bed bugs bite" Chloe said in a snarky tone of voice before closing her eyes and allowing sleep to take over. The three of them were asleep within a matter of seconds.

* * *

**The Next Morning. 8:24 AM**

Chloe was the first one to wake up, Max eventually got up after a few more minutes of rest. Everest was the last one awake, and he looked like he had the best rest of his life. He then saw Max walk into the makeshift shelter with a smile on her face and and her Polaroid in her hand.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. You sleep well?" Max asked with her thoughts. Everest only nodded while he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Max then held her camera up and Everest tilted his head with a confused look on his face.

"This is a camera, it takes pictures. Would you please hold still for me?" asked Max politely out loud. Everest then sat up and smiled for the camera. Max then took the picture, and this time the flash didn't scare Everest like it did last time.

"Hey, you didn't get scared by the flash this time. I'm proud of you, buddy" Max said as she took the photo out the camera and shook it in her hand to make it develop faster before placing it in her bag. She then got an idea and held her Polaroid up to Everest.

"You wanna try taking a picture, Everest? There's one slate of film left, you can use it if you want" Max said in her thoughts. Everest gently took the camera into his large hands and tried his best to hold it without breaking it. The Yeti then had the front end of the camera facing him as he held it in between his thumb and index fingers while he distanced the camera from his face.

"Very good. Now just press the button and it'll take the shot" Max said telepathically. Everest moved his index finger slightly down as gentle as he possibly could and the flash went off, the picture had been taken. Everest then watched in amazement as the picture printed out the camera and he took it into his free hand before gently shaking the photograph in between his fingers.

"Hey, you're doing exactly what I do. That's really good" Max said as she noticed Everest was copying her. Max held her hand out to Everest and he gently handed her back both the picture and her Polaroid.

"Now let's see how you did" Max said as she looked down at the photo the Yeti had just taken. It was a perfect self portrait of Everest, the right amount of distance between himself and the camera, the framing, and the perfect amount of lighting from the flash made it a very impressive photo for a first timer. The two of them then looked over to the entryway to see Chloe walk inside to greet the both of them.

"I heard the sound of your camera going off. Taking some pics?" asked Chloe as she approached her brunette friend. Max then handed her the photo Everest just took of himself.

"Glad to see you haven't lost your magic touch, Max" Chloe complimented.

"No, EVEREST took that photo" Max corrected her. Chloe then looked up at Everest and then the photograph.

"Really? He did? On his first try too?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah. It was so flawless the way he took the picture, the way he handed the camera. I'm so proud, Everest's first selfie" Max said smiling. Chloe then looked over to Max with a smirk.

"Maybe he gets it from watching you?" she suggested. Max then smiled as she looked up to Everest and gave him an encouraging pat on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess he does" said Max, not taking her eyes off of Everest.

"Like mother like son" Chloe said before giving Max the photo back and exiting the fort. Max could have objected Chloe's statement, but she didn't. Because she felt like it was true, the two of them acted very much like mother and son would despite being two entirely different species.

"Don't worry, Everest. Tonight we're gonna get you out of Shangai and on your way home. Promise" Max told Everest with her thoughts before giving him a gentle pat in between his eyes and left the shelter. She exited to see Yi and Chloe standing close to the door that lead back inside the complex. Yi had her backpack in her arms carrying what looked like food inside of it.

"I asked Yi to bring up some clean clothes for us since we pretty much slept in our clothes from yesterday" Chloe said as she walked over to where Yi's travel shrine was carrying some fresh neatly folded clothes in her arms. Max saw that her clothes were sitting on a small wooden crate that also had a dying flower in a vase sitting right next to them.

"Thanks, Yi. By the way, what's that in your bag?" Max asked as she approached the teenager.

"Oh, they're Nai Nai's famous pork buns. I wanted to make amends with Everest for hitting him with my violin last night, so I figure maybe some food would help? I'd imagine he's hungry too and wants some breakfast" Yi explained.

"May I?" Max asked. Yi only nodded and let her pick a Pork Bun out of the backpack and took a bite out of it. It was absolutely delicious, and the warm pork hitting the bottom of her stomach was the most satisfying feeling to her.

"Oh my dog, Yi. These are amazing. I don't even think Joyce could cook something this incredible" Max said with a full mouth and took another bite.

"Who's Joyce?" asked Yi in confusion.

"Chloe's mom. She made those omelettes you loved so much yesterday" Max said before finishing her bun and licked what was left off her fingers. Yi chuckled in reply.

"Thanks. I gotta tell Nai Nai you love them. Everybody loves her pork buns" she said. Max then picked her clothes up off the wooden box and walked over to the travel shrine to see Chloe had already gotten dressed. She was wearing her favorite black beanie on her head, as well as a white tee-shirt with a picture of a skull with spikes surrounding the lower jaw and ringing around it's forehead. She also swapped her canvas shoes for her combat boots and her favorite pair of torn black skinny jeans.

"Have you tried Nai Nai's pork buns. Those things are hella delicious" Chloe said as she put on her favorite black jacket over her tank top.

"Yeah. I wonder what would happen if Joyce and Nai Nai had a cook-off against one another" Max said as she entered the travel shrine, closed the curtain that covered the shrine up and began to swap out her clothes for the ones Yi picked for her right out of her bag.

"Honestly, it would be hard to pick the winner. They're both pretty good and have each other's own specialty dishes" Chloe said while Max was getting changed.

"Yeah, I guess you've got a point" Max said as she now stepped out of the shrine wearing her favorite gray hoodie over a dark red tee-shirt with a deer skull on the front with short antlers and a black lightning bolt on the left and right sides of the skull's cheek areas, dark blue jeans and her favorite pair of converse.

"Alright, now that we're all dressed we need to discuss the plan" Chloe said as Max exited the travel shrine. Chloe then walked inside the sheet metal fort to see Yi playing her violin for Everest, who seemed to be enjoying the music. Max stayed outside and looked down at the flower that was sitting on the wooden crate where her clothes were sitting before. She looked down at her left hand and got an idea, this time wanting to experiment with her rewind instead of her telepathy. She stared at the flower and held up her left arm up instead of her right and opened up her left hand. Max then twisting her wrist in a counter-clockwise motion as it was focused on the flower. She then began to notice something different, this time instead of everything around her going backwards in time, it was only the flower that was affected by the rewind and nothing else. The flower began to bloom back to life and looked beautiful again.

"Woah. It worked" Max said as she stopped using her rewind on the flower. Chloe and Yi stepped out the fort to greet Max.

"Okay Super-Max, what's this plan of yours?" Chloe asked. Max then snapped out of her state of awe and then walked over to the shopping bags she got yesterday and dumped out everything she bought onto the floor.

"Okay, here's what I got in mind. We still have the truck we stole from Burnish right? We're going to disguise it to make it look like it DIDN'T come from the Burnish compound and drive it to the port close to the time that ship is set to depart with Everest in the back" Max explained.

"So all we have to do is disguise it?" asked Yi.

"Yeah. I bought this spray paint because it matches the exact same matte black paint job the truck already had when we stole and drove off in it. First, we use it to cover up the Burnish logo. Then we have to swap out the license plates with these ones I bought down at the auto part shop. The words on them were already printed on them when I bought them, so I figured this was our best option instead of having to wait for registered plates to come in the mail" said Max as she explained what each individual item was for.

"Good idea. What's the pocket knife for?" Chloe asked pointing to the knife that was still inside the plastic case it came in when she bought it.

"I couldn't find any screwdrivers. That's part of the reason I came back here to late yesterday. I couldn't find any screwdrivers anywhere, I've been to at least eight or nine stores looking for one. So I settled for the knife, we can use it's open blade similar to how you use a screwdriver to take the screws off the truck's old plates" Max answered.

"Way to improvise, Super-Max" Chloe commented.

"What are these clothes for then?" Yi asked.

"Those are for when we finish cover up the logos on the truck and swapping out the plates. We need to look like we're driving to the port making an important delivery, so we'll need trucker disguises for when it's time for us to leave" said Max.

"Good idea. I guess we're going to be spending all of today working on disguising the truck?" asked Yi.

"That's right. We parked it close to the scaffolding behind the dumpster. Nobody will be able to see us or suspect anything because it's covered by the shade, the black paint job helps with masking it in the shade" said Max before looked down the edge of the apartment roof to look down at the truck still protected by the shade.

"Then I guess we've got work to do. Leave the painting to me, alright?" Chloe said while she picked up the cans of spray paint and took them into her arms before making her way to the scaffolding and climbed down to the ground.

"Can I help with anything?" Yi asked Max after they were the only ones on the roof with Everest after Chloe went down.

"I'll need some help with the plates. But we'll wait until Chloe's done painting and give it some time to dry. I know we're on a schedule but we don't really need to rush it, alright?" Max said.

"Not a problem. I can totally do that" Yi replied confidently.

* * *

**Ten Hours Later. **

Max had no idea she had bought the type of spray paint that took an incredibly long time to dry, so she'd have to wait a while until the paint finally dried on the truck. Chloe said she did a pretty good job masking the Burnish Industries logos on the doors of the vehicle and there was barely any sign that they were being covered up by anything. While they were waiting, Max and Chloe went shopping for supplies for their trip to the Himalayas. Yi stayed behind to look after Everest, and she said she didn't have any problem with it. After a good few hours, Max and Chloe came back with more than enough bottles of fresh water, snack foods, medical supplies, and other things that would be needed for a long journey. The two American girls went up the stairs this time instead of the scaffolding to make themselves look as casual and less a threat as possible to the Burnish employees who were still on the streets looking for their fluffy white furred friend.

"Chloe?" Max asked, catching her friend's attention.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"I know this is kinda stupid and odd of me to be asking of you, but... did you pack David's gun with you?" asked Max.

"Unfortunately I did not. BUT I did manage to score a pistol off the guards we knocked out two nights ago. It's actually similar to the one Nathan pulled on me back in Arcadia Bay. Why do you ask?" Chloe replied.

"I just have a feeling we're going to need it, that's all. I know we've got my rewind but what if my powers start failing? Like when I attempted to stop Kate from jumping. We just need to be prepared for the worst, regardless of what that is" Max explained.

"I understand. And you're right, it's better to have it with you than not need it at all. Now let's go check on Yi and Everest. The paint on the truck should be dry by now and we can start putting on those plates. The ship leaves soon anyways so we're going to have to hurry" said Chloe as she began walking ahead of Max up the stairs to get to the roof. Max picked up the pace and began catching up to her. The two found themselves back on the roof and saw Yi playing her violin for Everest, who was enjoying the nice melodic sounds coming from the instrument.

"We're back. Hope he didn't cause too much trouble for you" Max said.

"Oh no, he didn't. He's pretty well behaved but he's a pretty curious Yeti. Always wondering what certain things were and stuff like that" Yi explained as she put her violin away back in it's case and into her backpack.

"Well, the paint should be done by now. You and Max wanna put those plates up?" Chloe asked as she set the shopping bags down.

"I think that's a good idea. Chloe, think you can pack everything up and watch Everest for us while we work?" Max asked as she picked up the knife and took it out the plastic case while Yi picked up the license plates.

"No problem, Mad-Max. I'll get us packed as quickly as possible. Besides, Everest loves hanging around Auntie Chloe. Don't you buddy?" Chloe asked as she wiggled her fingers underneath Everest's chin which made him giggle and stomp his foot in delight.

"Oh so NOW you like being called Auntie Chloe?" Max asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Don't push it, Caulfield" Chloe said before walking downstairs to grab a spare backpack she packed that was sitting in the guest room. Max and Yi walked side by side as they went to the scaffolding and climbed down the ground level with their supplies and walked over to the truck.

"Okay, so how about you undo the screws and I'll hold the plates in plates?" Max offered. Yi nodded and took the knife from Max as she was handing it to her. The younger girl then unfolded the blade and placed it in the center of the screw and undid it, causing it to fall to the ground and did the exact same thing with the other one. Max then picked the plate off the floor and then held one of the new plates she bought against the bumper where the old plate previously was set. Yi placed the screw in the hole and began to tighten it.

"Yi? Can I ask you a question?" asked Max.

"Uh, sure. What is it?" Yi replied.

"Why are you so distant from your mother and Nai Nai? I've noticed you barely see then or talk to them. You're always off doing some odd job trying to raise money for your travels" Max asked. She was nervous that she had asked a question that was a little too personal for Yi to answer. Yi only sighed and looked to Max as soon as she finished tightening the first screw.

"Well, if you must know... after my dad died, mom and Nai Nai felt like they just HAD to reach out to me in some way. It felt extremely uncomfortable, always being asked non-stop questions about things that were none of their concern, constantly wanting to be around me. I felt like I was being suffocated by them being around all the time, Max. I just want to escape and travel all across China like my dad wanted me to" Yi explained. Max didn't expect her to remain so calm when she answered, she was expecting to be snapped and being told it was none of her business, but Yi gave an answer that felt genuine.

"I know what it's like. My parents were like that at first when my grandma died. All I wanted to do was be alone but mom and dad just kept insisting I be around them. I eventually told them how I felt a few days after the funeral, and after that they just let me grieve naturally" Max told her. Yi was surprised to find that her new friend could actually relate to what she was feeling.

"My grieving process may be taking a little longer than yours. My dad literally died one year ago, and it still feels like he died last week. I've become a lone wolf and I've grown used to it, but everyone else just HAS to be a part of my life and pretend like nothing ever happened and everything's sunshine and rainbows" she said.

"I understand that it feels like the people who try to help you the most feel like they're suffocating you, but you can't shut everyone out completely. You need someone whom you can trust to talk to when you feel like you're ready to open up and express how you feel, not just avoid everyone and keep them in the dark about it" Max explained to her. Yi looked a bit sad as she finished tightening the last screw but then she gave off a small smile before turning to face Max.

"Well, I'm doing that right now aren't I?" asked Yi. Max smiled and spoke back.

"Really? You trust me enough to tell me your problems and feelings?" asked Max, feeling honored and humbled by this.

"Well, yeah. Ever since you and Chloe arrived I've felt like I've had real friends again. I even laughed for the first time in a while when you both rejected Jin and I took that picture of his shocked face" Yi said while at the same time, trying to hold in a giggle at the memory of taking that picture.

"Yeah, that was pretty funny" Max said as the two walked over to the front of the truck to swap out the front plate.

"It felt like... life was insanely boring before you showed up. Now I know Yetis exist, that superpowers like telepathy and rewinding time are a real thing. Life's gotten hella more interesting" Yi said, which made Max chuckle.

"Hey, you just said "Hella". Guess Chloe's lingo is rubbing off on you huh?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I guess so" Yi said as she got the knife ready to loosen the first screw. A loud metal clanging caught their attention and the two girls looked up to see the air conditioner that went into the living room of Yi's apartment was missing and the cord went all the way up to the roof.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, he did NOT!" Max said as she ran over to the scaffolding and began climbing up to the roof, Yi followed closely behind her.

* * *

**A/N: Part 4 is complete everybody! And how about that? Yi has opened up about her feelings to Max and she feels like her life has become even more exciting and eventful since Max and Chloe showed up, and Everest too. But now, it looks like their plan may come to a halt due to whatever Everest wants with Yi's apartment's AC system. The fifth and final part of episode two will come soon, and we'll dive into Episode Three hopefully by next month! More to come in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	10. Breakout: Part 5

**A/N: I hope everybody's excited, because the fifth and final part of Life is Abominable Episode Two is finally here! I've decided that Episode Three will be titled "Departure", and part 1 will be coming soon. I'm happy that everyone who's reading has stuck with and followed this story so far, and I promise to keep delivering on great content and many things to look forward to in future episodes. Also, by this time the final episode of Life is Strange 2 has been released, and I know, David, Max and Chloe were the only survivors of the storm according to the episode. But, we're choosing to ignore that for the sake of this story because Episode One implied there were more survivors. Now, let's conclude episode two right now! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After Yi helps mask Everest from the prying eyes of Burnish's helicopter, Max and Chloe enlist her help in carrying out their plan to get Everest out of Shanghai and start their long journey to the Himalayas. Max has also discovered some new features to her rewind, such as having certain objects go backwards in time instead of the entire area around her. Yi also opens up to Max about why she avoids spending time with her mother and grandmother, Nai Nai, and takes comfort in Max listening and telling her how she relates to what she's going through. As the two prepare the truck to depart for the port, Max and Yi see Everest has stolen the AC unit belonging to Yi's apartment, which only delays the plan and now they must see what Everest is doing..._

* * *

**Shanghai, China. 7:51 PM**

Max and Yi had just gotten up to the roof to see Everest had indeed stolen the air conditioner. He was lying on his back and holding it above his head with his feet, letting the cool air blow into his face. Chloe was scolding the Yeti and trying to make him give it up.

"Everest! No! You don't take things that don't belong to you! That's very bad!" Max said out loud instead of her thoughts.

"What are you doing out here!? Someone's gonna see you!" Yi piped in as she ran over and tried helping Max to pull the AC box out of Everest's feet, but he was way too strong and their effort was all for nothing. Chloe then saw the extension cord and ran over to it, taking it into her hands and tugging at it as hard as she could.

"Let go! Everest, that is NOT a toy!" Chloe scolded as she kept tugging at the cord. Yi then climbed on top of Everest's face to try and grab the air conditioner from the front, but it still didn't work. Everest's grip on it was more powerful than all three girls were anticipating. Little did they know that as they were occupied trying to get Everest to let the metal box go, Jin and Peng were coming up to the roof.

"It does not make sense. Why would they take it to the roof?" Jin asked Peng before they watched in horror as Max, Chloe, and Yi were struggling to deal with the curious Yeti. Peng let out a girlish scream that someone would only let out in a horror movie when they stumbled upon the killer's lair or a murder scene. The scream was so loud, everybody had their eyes on Jin and Peng, including Everest.

"Oh, hey Peng. You uh... wanna go down and shoot some hoops?" Chloe asked sheepishly, trying to pretend like they weren't seeing what it was they were indeed seeing.

"Guys! What are you doing up here?" Yi asked in a casual tone of voice. Max clenched her fist tightly, ready to rewind time if she felt it to be necessary.

"Hey! Get away from them!" Jin shouted as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket and began dialing the number for the Shanghai Police Department.

"Okay, I'm calling the police!" he added, his thumb dangerously close to the 'Call' button below the keypad on the screen. Max tried swiping the phone away, but Jin kept on dodging Max's hand.

"He's not going to hurt you. I promise" Max said as she tried to stop Jin from calling the cops. Jin was now holding up a wooden chair that was kept in Yi's travel shrine like a lion tamer would as Everest approached him. Everest's response to this was to roar loudly in his face.

"Look at him! He's a Yeti! And Max can communicate to him with telepathy" Yi said. Peng peeked his head out from behind Jin, his look of horror replaced with a look of amazement and awe.

"Cool!" he said.

"What? No! Yetis don't exist! Neither does telepathy or any other kind of superpowers like that!" Jin shouted.

"Well how the Hell do you explain him standing in front of you right now? And it's not just telepathy, Max can rewind time too" Chloe said, seeing how there was no point in hiding anything now that the cat was officially out of the bag.

"I'm calling the cops and that's that!" Jin said as he was about to slam his index finger on the call button.

"NO!" Max shouted as she held out her right hand and opened up her palm to face Jin. What Max did next was completely unintentional, she accidentally twisted her wrist to the right and instead of rewinding time, Jin froze where he stood. Peng, Yi, and Chloe's jaws dropped in disbelief.

"Max, did you just do that?" asked Yi as she stared at Jin who was absolutely still.

"I didn't mean to, I swear. I tried rewinding so I could lock the door and stop him and Peng from coming up here but instead I just... froze him in time" Max explained. Peng just stared in awe.

"This is so cool! Yetis and superpowers? This is something out of a comic book or something!" Peng exclaimed happily. Everyone's faces went pale when they heard the sound of a dial tone. They turned to Jin to see that his finger had pressed the call button just as Max accidentally paused him.

"Uh oh" Yi said.

"Hella not good" Chloe added. They then heard the sound of a female police officer on the other end of the phone. After a few seconds of silence and hearing the female officer asking if anybody was there, they said they were pinpointing their location through the phone signal. Chloe then ran over to the travel shrine and grabbed her backpack and placed it over her shoulder.

"Max, we have to go! Screw the truck we have to leave before the cops show up and get to the port before that ship leaves!" Chloe said. Max nodded in agreement and she held her left arm up again, but this time she turned her wrist to the left, which un-paused Jin and he began moving normally through time again. Jin began taking deep breaths in and out and there was a look on his face similar to the face he made when Chloe rejected him and Yi took the picture.

"What was that? I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't... I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING! WHAT DID YOU DO ME!?" Jin shouted as he was freaking out about being paused where he was in time. Before Max could say anything, a helicopter appeared in the sky and had a spotlight shining down over the roof. The wind that was created by the helicopter's propeller caused the photos attached to the wooden board on Yi's travel shrine to come loose. Yi began to panic and say 'No' on repeat as she snatched up the photos and placed them in the same case her violin was kept in.

"Attention! We have you surrounded! Surrender the Yeti and no harm will come to you!" a voice said on the helicopter's megaphone. The minute they said that, Max immediately knew something was up.

"Chloe, those aren't the cops! It's one of Burnish's goons!" Max said as she picked up her bag Chloe had packed for her.

"That means Burnish somehow managed to bribe some dirty cops into working for him! We have to reach that ship before it's too late!" The blue-haired girl said. Max nodded before Everest grabbed her, Chloe, and Yi before placing them up onto his back and jumped off the edge of the roof and landing safely on the roof of a corner store.

"Hang on tight, girls. We're in for a hella bumpy ride!" Chloe said as Everest kept moving forward from roof to roof with the helicopter still hot on their trail. As they were riding, Max looked out into the distance and saw the port come into view. She noticed the ship that was scheduled to leave soon was there. She knew it was getting close to the actual departure time the more they kept this chase going, so she had to convince Everest to move over to the port.

"Everest, we have to get to the port. We need to board that ship if we're going to get you home. Make your way to the port" Max said in her thoughts. Everest looked up to Max by moving his eyes upwards and nodded in agreement only once before jumping across the street to another roof.

"Hang on, I told him we need to go to the port. He's taking us there now!" Max said as Everest began picking up the pace on his running. The helicopter was still following them but it was further behind them now that Everest had begun running faster. Yi then got an idea and tapped on Max's shoulder.

"Tell him to go over to the Oriental Pearl Tower. At eight o'clock there's a light show every night! We can lose them in the flashes of light that come from the tower!" Yi explained. Chloe nodded at Max in agreement, she liked the plan and was on board with him. Max then began using her telepathy again on Everest.

"Go to the big tower with the large ball on top. It's the only way we're going to lose them. Once it starts flashing lights, make your way to the port" Max said in her mind. Everest understood but didn't nod and began making his way up the higher building roofs as they made their way up to the tower. When Everest hopped through a construction site and began climbing the steel support beams, as well as the cable of a crane, they finally got to the Oriental Pearl Tower and Everest clung to the metal ring in the very center of the glass orb at the very top of the tower itself.

"Guys! Look!" Yi exclaimed, pointing over to the distance. Max and Chloe saw the ship, it was almost time for it to leave.

"We have to get to that boat before it leaves the city!" Max said to the others.

"I know, but we need to wait until the light show to lose those Burnish creeps!" Chloe replied. The Burnish helicopter had eventually caught up with them and turned to the side to reveal a man carrying a sniper rifle. Max saw the weapon and gasped when she knew that the bullet that was just loaded into that rifle was meant for Everest. But she wasn't going to let that happen, she swore to protect Everest and that's what she was doing to do. Max remembered how she restored the flower to life and froze Jin in time using her powers, if she could do what she did before, she could use it to save Everest from being shot and help them escape unharmed.

"We got a sniper on our hands!" Chloe exclaimed when she saw the weapon. When the man took the shot, Max held up her right arm and opened up her palm. The bullet froze in mid-air and then fell to the street below when Max put her arm down. The sniper was befuddled at what he just saw, and loaded another bullet to try and shoot down Everest a second time.

"He's reloading it!" Yi shouted while pointing at the sniper. Max looked down at her phone to see it was a minute to eight o'clock. But she still needed to stop the bullet before they could make their grand exit and lose the helicopter. The brown-haired girl got an idea and looked down at her left hand before her eyes focused back on the sniper with a serious look on her face. The minute she saw the sniper take the shot, Max held her left arm up and did a focused rewind on the bullet, making it go back into the gun it was fired from. The minute the bullet went back inside the chamber, the entire weapon exploded in the sniper's arms and rendered him unconscious on the helicopter floor.

"Max... did you do that!?" Chloe asked in astonishment.

"We'll talk about this later! Right now we need to get out of here!" Max replied. Chloe looked down to see a black SUV park at the bottom of the tower with a Zara getting out of the vehicle holding up a pair of binoculars.

"Zara" Chloe snarled, she hated that woman with a passion and swore she'd take revenge on her for Rachel. The sound of electronics charging up caught everyone's ears and startled Everest slightly. It was now eight o'clock and the light show was about to begin. The entire Oriental Pearl lit up with multiple different colors and the pilot of the helicopter became disoriented and tilted the vehicle to the side. Now that the lights were blinding the helicopter, Everest hopped off the tower down to one of the lower buildings and began running closer and closer towards the port. After three roofs, Everest finally landed safely on the ground.

"Yes, we made it!" Chloe said as she hopped off Everest's back with Max and Yi following. The four then began running over towards the ship. The minute they got there, Max and Chloe stopped to face Yi.

"Thanks for helping us get this far, Yi. We really owe you" Max said.

"No problem. Now what are we gonna do?" Yi asked.

"Chloe and I need to help Everest get back home, so we'll be getting on that ship with him" Max told her. She looked behind her to see Chloe and Everest jumping aboard the ship and Chloe was urging Max to hurry up and get on board with them. Max nodded and then gave Yi a quick hug goodbye before running over and jumping on board the boat.

"Glad to see you could join us, Super-Max" Chloe said. Max just chuckled and nudged the blue-haired girl's shoulder playfully.

"Shut up" said Max. Their eyes went wide when they heard the sound of feet landing on the ship's concrete surface. The three of them saw it was Yi who had just hopped off the dock and onto the ship.

"Yi, what are you doing?" asked Chloe.

"What does it look like? I'm coming with you guys" Yi answered. Max then was the next one to speak.

"Yi, this journey could be very dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt" Max said calmly.

"Everest needs help getting home, right? You two are gonna need all the help you guys can get. That's why I'm going with you" Yi explained. Max looked over to Everest who nodded happily with a smile on his face, letting Max know he wanted Yi to come along with them.

"Alright, but you have to be careful. We don't know what this trip will bring our way" said Max.

"I understand. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine" the Chinese teen replied.

"Yi!" A voice called out. Everest, Max, Chloe, and Yi turned their heads to face the dock to see Jin standing at the edge looking like he was about to have a stroke. Max, Chloe, Yi, and Everest watched as Jin was shouting out to them as the boat got further and further away from the port.

"Yi, are you crazy!?" Jin asked loudly. They then saw Peng come up behind them wearing a motorcycle helmet with a unicorn design on it (ears, horn, and mane included).

"Hey! Wait for me!" Peng shouted out as he excitedly ran over to the ship his friends were on. He almost missed the edge and fell into the water, but Everest grabbed him in time just before he could. Jin was now even more furious than before.

"Nice catch, Everest" Max said with her thoughts and gave Everest a pat on the shoulder.

"Welcome aboard, Peng. You're now an official member of Captain Blue-Beard's pirate crew alongside her first mate, Long-Max Silver" Chloe said, making Max and Everest let out a chuckle of amusement. Max hadn't heard Chloe use those nicknames since they played pirates as kids.

"Peng! I'm responsible for you!" shouted Jin before he just let out a loud groan and ran over to get on board the ship with the others.

"Urgh! Your mom's gonna kill me!" Jin shouted before landing in a puddle of oil that was resting on the ship's floor. Everest, Peng, and Chloe began laughing at how Jin's shoes (his babies) got soaked in the black goo and was complaining about how much he hated this.

"No! No! No! You think this is funny!? Do you even know how much I paid for these!?" Jin exclaimed in outrage as Everest and Peng laughed at him.

"Jin, no offense but I hella don't care" Chloe replied.

"Ooh, burn" Peng shouted out before resuming his laughing fit alongside Everest. Max just chuckled at this before looking to see they were now miles away from Shanghai and saw Yi standing at the ship's edge staring out at the beautifully illuminated city. Max smiled and took out her Polaroid, taking a picture of it.

"This will make a pretty good artistic shot" said Max to herself quietly before the film printed out and she shook it in her hands before placing it back in her bag. Max then walked over to Yi and stood right next to her as she stared at the city.

**(Start Playing 'Mt. Washington' by Local Natives as you read this next part of the story until it says to stop)**

"It's beautiful isn't it?" asked Max, wanting to catch Yi's attention.

"Yeah. I guess I didn't realize how beautiful the city looked like this until now" Yi answered.

"Arcadia Bay used to look as beautiful as this before that massive storm hit us. It feels like I'm back up at the lighthouse with Chloe, watching the sun set over the ocean again" Max told her.

"Sounds really pretty. Do you miss Arcadia Bay? The way things used to be?" Yi asked. Max took a deep breath before answering her friend's question.

"Every day, Yi. I miss it every day. But I still have the memory of it, and as long as I have the memory... Arcadia Bay's still standing. In my heart" Max said with her hand over her chest where her heart was.

"So what are we gonna do once we get to South China?" asked Yi.

"We still got a lot of planning to do. We need to find the best route to take if we're going to be walking to the Himalayas. I have a feeling we won't be driving or flying there once we get to the next port" said Max.

"Yeah. Good point, but just know this..." Yi paused in mid-sentence before placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"...I'll be there to help you and Chloe figure everything out. Everest is my friend too, and it's important I help get him home alongside you guys" Yi continued and gave a determined smile as she finished her sentence. Max smiled back and gave Yi a hug in response to this.

"Thanks Yi. The more players on our team we have, the better" said Max. The two friends broke their hug to see Jin standing there with his arms crossed and tapping his foot.

"Alright, now that we got the friendship stuff out of the way, I think we're owed an explanation, Max" said Jin.

"Explanation? For what?" Yi asked.

"For how she can do the things she just did" Jin replied sternly. Max then walked up to Jin and opened her mouth to speak.

"You do deserve answers, Jin. You all do. Just sit down and I'll tell everyone the story" Max replied before guiding Yi and Jin back to where Chloe, Peng, and Everest were. She sat them all down in a circle and began telling everyone the story of how she first discovered her rewind and how it lead her to discover the dark secrets her hometown was keeping, as well as the storm she had caused that destroyed it. The full story took about six minutes to tell, but it was enough to leave her new friends in absolute shock.

"Woah, that's... insane" Peng said as Max finished the story.

"I can't believe you went through all that. That's just, awful" Yi added. Everest let out a sad grunt and nodded in agreement with what Yi had said.

"Honestly, I'd say you guys were crazy, but after seeing Max use her time powers like that... I'd say I don't know what's normal anymore" Jin had said. Everest then let out a loud yawn, signalling it was time for bed. So everyone picked an area on the ship to sleep for the night, but Max decided to sleep with Everest again tonight. Everest took Max into his arms and hugged her close to him. Max was now cuddling into Everest's white fur which felt so warm and comforting to her, allowing sleep to take over before whispering something in her mind.

"Goodnight, Everest" she said using her telepathy. Before Max could fully fall asleep, she swore she heard something echo inside her mind, it was a voice she wasn't familiar with and never heard before.

"Goodnight, mama" it said inside Max's head. This made Max smile and her heart warm. She knew now that Everest was only a child and wanted only to get back home to his family. The fact that Everest looked to Max like a mother figure made her feel so honored and flattered at the same time. Max then closed her eyes and allowed sleep to take over as both she and Everest drifted off into a peaceful slumber. Max knew that it was going to be a long journey, but that was fine with her. She knew she would help Everest get back to his home no matter the cost.

**(You Can Stop Playing The Song Now)**

**-This Action Will Have Consequences-**

**End of Episode Two: Breakout**

* * *

**A/N: There you have it everyone! Episode Two is finally completed! Episode Three will be coming soon, and the journey to help Everest get back to the Himalayas has officially begun. And yes, I wanted to expand on Max's time powers, like how she can do more things with her rewind the more she uses it, and these new features are going to be helpful to her throughout her journey. More to come in the next update and the beginning of Episode Three. Please review, thanks!**


	11. Departure: Part 1

**A/N: Hey everyone! Glad you could join us because Episode Three of "Life is Abominable" had just begun! I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas, because I know I sure did. I got Abominable as a stocking stuffer, so it's going to be a big help in writing this story. Max and Chloe's adventure to help get Everest home continues right now! So, enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max, Chloe, and Yi have been caught by Jin and Peng who have discovered Everest on the roof of the apartment. Max freezes Jin in time to stop him from calling the police, but the call went through regardless and Burnish Industries showed up to attempt to recapture the Yeti. Everest runs away from the helicopter with Max, Chloe, and Yi on his back and manage to get away with the help of Max's newest additions to her rewind powers as well as a blinding light show on the Oriental Pearl Tower. After boarding the ship to Eastern China, Jin and Peng also tag along on their journey and hear Max retell the story of what happened back in Arcadia Bay in October 2013. Everest also manages to speak inside Max's thoughts, calling her his 'Mama', and revealing that he is only a child who was taken from his parents by Burnish and their sadistic zoologist friend, Emily Zara..._

* * *

**Somewhere Along the Southern Chinese Shore. 7:23 AM**

**(Start playing 'On Melancholy Hill' by Gorillaz as you read this next part of the story until it says to stop)**

Max slowly opened her eyes to reveal she was still cuddling into Everest's big white fluffy belly with his arms wrapped around her. She didn't mind though, in fact, Everest was comfier and warmer than any bed she had ever slept in. Everest was still soundly sleeping and was breathing through his nose as he slept. Max crept out from underneath the Yeti's large arms and jumped down onto the ship's concrete floor.

"I'll let him rest just a little while longer" said Max to herself before walking over to the edge of the ship and began gazing all the way out to the ocean. Max only smiled at the beautiful sight before taking her Polaroid out of her bag and looked right through the viewfinder. After a minute or two of trying to find the perfect angle, Max pressed the button and took a photo. The sound of the camera printing the photo out was enough to wake the young Yeti up, and he let out a yawn. Max turned around to see Everest was awake and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up.

"Oh, hey buddy" Max said as she took the photo and placed it in her bag alongside her Polaroid.

"Did I wake you up?" asked Max in her thoughts. Everest only let out a tired yawn and nodded after he finished.

"Sorry about that. Just couldn't resist taking a picture" said Max in her mind still. The two of them then heard the sound of footsteps approaching and they turned their heads to see Chloe and Yi walking towards them.

"About time you two woke up" Chloe said with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

"Yeah, we were starting to worry that you weren't gonna wake up" Yi said.

"Well, we're up and at 'em now. So, don't worry about it" Max said before giving Everest a gentle pat on his forehead.

"Okay enough sleepy-times. Peng and Jin are awake too, and we need to discuss the path we're gonna take to the Himalayas" Chloe said before walking away. Max looked up to Everest and the Yeti only nodded without his human surrogate-mother having to say anything before they walked over to join the others.

"I had no idea how beautiful it was out here. The world is... so much bigger than I thought it was" Max whispered to herself as she looked out to the small islands she passed while walking alongside Everest. Max then saw Jin was talking on the phone, and Peng's eyes lit up the minute he saw his new fluffy white friend and ran up to Everest, shouting out his name before giving him a hug.

"Yeah, Ma. Beijing is, um, great. The dorms... the dorms are clean" Jin said to his mother who was on the other end of the phone. Max gave a small smile at that, at least Jin was giving a solid and believable alibi instead of just selling them out.

"Peng? Oh, Peng is, uh..." Jin said before pausing in mid-sentence to look at Peng looking inside Everest's mouth and commenting on how much teeth the young Yeti had.

"Yeah, Peng is fine!" Jin concluded. Yi then ran up to Jin and waved her arms at him and pointed at herself to catch his attention.

"Oh, and Yi came to. Yeah, Mm-Hmm. She's uh, checking out the university. And Max and Chloe tagged along too. Yeah, the blue haired girl who played with Peng the other day" said Jin. Max then heard a loud thud and turned behind her to see Peng and Everest looking inside a giant wooden crate full of red Coca-Cola cans. Peng excitedly grabbed a can out of the box and opened it.

"Soda!? Oh, yeah! Mom never lets me have any!" he exclaimed before taking in a large sip. He then grabbed another can and got ready to toss it to Everest.

"Catch!" Peng exclaimed before tossing the can over to the Yeti. Before he could catch it though, Max held out her right hand and turned her wrist to the right, pausing the can in mid-air.

"Peng! We don't know if Everest can have that stuff or not" Max said before walking over and snatching the can out of mid-air and taking it into her hand.

"Come on, Max. One can't won't hurt him" Peng said.

"You don't know that. Human bodies and Yeti bodies have different genetic structures, what's good to us may be bad for them. It's like giving a dog chocolate" Max softly reprimanded the young boy. After hearing a grunt come from Everest, Max turned her head to face him. Everest was whimpering, extending his lower lip out, and giving the widest and saddest eyes she had ever seen.

"Everest? When did you even learn how to do the 'Puppy-Dog Pout'? I haven't used that since Chloe and I were tweens" Max said using her telepathic link with Everest. Everest didn't answer though, and continued his puppy-like pout and whimper technique. Max then just exhaled before giving a small smile to the young Yeti.

"Alright, but you can only have one. Deal?" asked Max with her voice. Everest only reply was a nod, and his puppy-dog face was gone. Max tossed the can over to Everest, whom caught it in his mouth before biting down into the aluminum surface with a tooth and the entire thing exploded into his mouth. Everest's eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk to the size of pebbles.

"Oh Jeebus, what have I done?" Max whispered to herself when she saw Everest acting hyper and running around laughing.

"Hey! Mad-Max! Come over here!" Chloe's voice called out to her.

"Alright, you two behave yourselves. I gotta check in with the others" Max said to Peng and Everest before walking over to speak with Chloe, Yi, and Jin. After Max was no longer within view of the two kids, they looked back to the giant crate full of coke and got wide smiles on their faces before they began treating themselves to more.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

"Glad you could join us, Max" Jin said before placing his phone back in his pocket.

"Did your mom buy your alibi?" asked Max.

"Yeah, fortunately. She'd KILL me if she knew where it was Peng and I really were" said Jin.

"I gotta say, Jin, that was a pretty convincing lie. I've had to come up with one or two alibis myself during my Blackwell days. Even when I snuck out of the house to go see that Firewalk concert at the old mill outside of Arcadia Bay. You may be a better liar than I am" said Chloe before she sat down on the floor with her legs crossed.

"Whatever. I cannot believe you made me lie to my mother you blue-haired punk!" Jin scoffed before sitting down across from her.

"Alright, let's come up with our route" Yi piped in.

"Right. Max? I believe we bought a map the day we left, right?" Chloe asked.

"Oh, yeah actually. It's in my bag, I think" Max said.

"Take it out and lay it down on the floor" Chloe gently ordered. Max then reached into her camera-bag and took out the map of China she had purchased while shopping for trip supplies with Chloe. After opening the map up, she laid it flat down onto the surface.

"Perfect, anybody got a pen?" asked Yi. Max then reached into the side pocket of her bag and took out a red sharpie pen.

"Here, I use this for writing in my journal sometimes" Max said as she handed it to the Chinese teen.

"This will do nicely. Thanks" Yi said before she drew a red dot along the shore of Southern China.

"Okay, so this is where the boat stops. And once we land, we need to go over the Yellow Mountain. After that we have to travel along the Yangtze River, so we're going to have to find a boat or anyone who's willing to help us when we get to that point. The river should take us most of the way to the Himalayas, we'll have to walk the rest of the way though until we reach Mt. Everest" Yi said as she drew a thick red line across the map and making big red dots along various locations.

"Sounds like a plan. I like it" Max said.

"Yeah, this can work. We'll take it" Chloe added before standing up. Jin's eyed widened in disbelief and spoke up once he was back on his feet.

"Woah, wait. Mt. Everest? No, no, no. That has to be hundreds of miles away!" Jin exclaimed.

"Actually, it's THOUSANDS!" a new voice piped in and everyone's eyes were on Peng who was balancing a stack of coke cans on his palm.

"Peng! I thought I said no more than one!" Max scolded before running after him and saw Everest was lying down on a large pile of empty red cans.

"Everest! What the Hell is wrong with you? I thought we had a deal!" Max exclaimed in her mind to make sure Everest knew she was mad that he broke their agreement on the soda. Everest then sat up and looked at Max with a look on his face that normally a toddler would get when they knew they did something wrong and were about to be put in a time-out or have a toy taken away from them.

"First you get hyper, then you have a sugar crash. Then, before you know it you're going to have to pee real bad! This is exactly why I said you could only have one!" Max telepathically shouted at Everest. Now Everest felt ashamed of himself and looked sadly down at the floor. When she saw his face, Max immediately regretted shouting at him. The guilt grew more when she heard Everest start to sniffle, and eventually he was bawling.

"Okay okay, calm down, Everest. I'm sorry, I-I-I shouldn't have yelled at you like that" Max said before walking up to Everest and placed her hands under his lower jaw, pulling him closer towards her before nuzzling him in between his eyes. Everest's crying stopped and he began to hum happily at Max's affectionate gesture.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. But too much of a good thing just isn't good for you. You have to take it easy on the soda, alright?" Max asked in an apologetic tone of voice. Everest nodded in reply before he sent another telepathic message into her head.

"I'm sorry, Mama" the voice said.

"I know you are, honey. I'm sorry too" Max replied in her thoughts. Max then heard the sound of a collective "Aww" behind her, and she turned her head to see Yi, Chloe, and Peng standing there.

"Look at you, Max. You're a bonafide Yeti-Mama" Chloe said with her arms crossed against her chest.

"That is so sweet" Peng said. Yi nodded in agreement before Chloe walked up to the large wooden crate and took four cans of Coke out before signalling Max to follow her. Max and Everest followed Chloe to the middle of the ship, Yi and Peng followed right behind them and Jin joined in as well.

"Max, what you did back when Burnish's goons were chasing us, that was pretty sick. But, you got lucky. As far as I can tell you don't know how to use these extended features of your rewind to it's fullest, right?" Chloe asked.

"You're right. I don't understand why I'm getting all these new abilities, and we'd be captured by now if I didn't know what I was doing. I just got lucky" Max admitted.

"Which is why we're gonna have some superpower practice. Let's start with that pause thing you did with Jin and the bullet" Chloe said while taking a few steps back and holding the can in her hands like it was a baseball.

"Batter up!" said Chloe before tossing the soda can like it was a curve-ball at Max. Max then held out her right hand, and turned her wrist to the right, pausing it in mid air before it could hit her.

"Not bad, Max. Guess you do know what you're doing after all. Now, send it flying back towards me" Chloe instructed. Max nodded and held up her left hand this time, sending it flying back towards Chloe. The blue-haired girl exclaimed "WOAH!" before ducking and the can missed her head before it landed into the water.

"This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!" Peng exclaimed excitedly. Jin just shook his head, thinking this whole day was way too bizarre for him to handle. Yi then got an idea on how Max could test her powers out.

"Alright, let's try something else" Yi said before taking one of the cans from Chloe and shook it up. Yi then placed it on the floor.

"Okay, Max, that can of coke is going to explode and make a huge mess when somebody opens it. Think you can "Un-Shake" it?" Yi asked.

"Hella yeah she can! Max Caulfield: Time-Warrior is about to blow your mind" Chloe said, making Max scoff and roll her eyes slightly with a small smile on her face.

"Just focus, Max" she whispered to herself before holding up her left hand and turned her wrist counter-clockwise. Once her wrist went as far as it could go, Max stopped and lowered her arm.

"Well? Did it work?" Peng asked.

"Only one way to find out" Yi said before picking the can up. Everybody watched nervously, including Everest, fearing the can was going to explode. Yi then opened up the tab, and surprisingly enough, the can didn't explode.

"Wow... it worked" Yi said before drinking the delicious cola inside the can.

"Told you she could do it. Super-Max surprises you each and every time" Chloe exclaimed happily. Max then felt something warm trickle down from her nostril down to her upper lip. She touched it and then looked down at her fingers to see blood sticking to her fingertips.

"Dude, your nose" Chloe said before walking over to Max and placing her hands on her friend's shoulders.

"You alright, Max?" Yi asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. This normally happens whenever I push myself too much" Max said as Chloe handed her an old neckerchief she kept in her back pocket and helped wipe the blood off Max's face. Everest then walked up to Max with a worried look on his face, wondering if she was okay. Max only let out a gentle smile and spoke using her telepathy.

"I'm fine, Everest. But I'm glad to know you worry about me. I'll be okay, sweetie" Max said before hearing a loud foghorn blow. Everyone then ran up to the front of the boat to see people working at the port. This was going to be a problem for them since they wanted to get off the ship without being spotted.

"Look at all those people" Peng said as he looked out at the port.

"We should hide" Yi suggested. Everybody nodded in agreement. Max then got an idea.

"Follow me" Max said before running back towards the large wooden crate of coke cans. Everest and Chloe followed her, and soon, Yi, Peng, and Jin followed suit.

"Get inside, hurry!" Max urged as she got inside the crate. Everyone did as told and soon everyone was inside with her. Max then held out her left arm and twisted her wrist at the crate's wall that Everest tore down. The wall clung itself back onto the crate and it's like it was never even torn off to begin with.

"Quick thinking. Now what?" Yi asked.

"Now, we wait" Max replied.

* * *

**Ten Minutes Later**

A large crane picked up the Coca-Cola crates and placed them on the back of a large flat-bed truck alongside two other crates. Once the last crate was safely placed on board the truck, it began to drive off.

"Wait... why are we still moving?" asked Jin. Max peeked her eyes out from in between the wooden boards of the crate wall and saw they were getting farther and farther away from the port.

"Because we're not at the dock anymore" Max answered.

"What!? Ahh! No!" Jin exclaimed as the truck kept going farther and farther away from the port.

"No, Jin, that's a GOOD thing. The further away we get, the less likely Burnish and Zara will be able to track us. They couldn't possibly know we're inside a giant wooden crate carrying a crap-ton of cola" Chloe told him. Jin just sat back down and crossed his arms with a pout on his face.

"Spoiled little socialite prick" Chloe whispered under her breath before walking back to sit down next to Everest.

"Hey, Everest. Mind sparing one of those cans for Auntie Chloe?" asked the blue-haired girl. Everest nodded and handed her a can before he opened one up for himself. Chloe opened her can up and sat down next to her (somewhat) foster-nephew. Max and Yi just kept their eyes peeking outside the wooden boards of the wall. The two girls saw they were driving through a farming village with tiny little houses that looked they've been there since ancient times.

"You know, I've never been outside the city" Yi said, wanting to break the silence between her and her brunette friend.

"I've only seen places like these in travel guides and photographs. I never thought I'd actually get to see them in person instead of in some photography gallery" Max replied.

"Wow. I can't believe how beautiful it is out here" Yi added.

"I can't believe I haven't eaten in twenty-four hours. I'm starving" Jin piped in before taking a sad duck-face selfie on his phone.

"Oh boo-hoo, poor little popular kid's hungry" Chloe said in reply to Jin's comment.

"Nobody asked you, Price" Jin retorted. Max then turned away from the crack in the wall and faced Jin.

"I'm actually gonna have to side with Chloe on this one. You haven't exactly been giving out positive vibes since we started this journey" said Max.

"Yeah, so? What's your point?" Jin asked, not really getting why Max was telling him these things.

"I get you're used to modern-day technology and city life, but you're not exactly living a life worth remembering. The world's a lot bigger than you think it is, and there are only so many days in our lives that a lot of us don't get the chance to explore it. Take advantage of this opportunity, broaden your horizons a little bit, this could be the adventure of a lifetime for you. And even if you can't share it on instagram or facebook, you'll always have the memories and the stories you'll be able to tell your family and friends when you get back" Max told him. Jin's look went soft at Max's words.

"Uh-Oh" said Peng.

"What's uh-oh?" Chloe asked as she sat up and looked at the nine-year-old.

"Guys, I gotta go!" Peng exclaimed.

"Just hold it" Jin told his little cousin. Everest then let out a large gasp and groan before placing his hands on his crotch.

"Uh, Max? Your Yeti-Child has to pee" said Chloe. Max looked to the Yeti and he began whimpering and stomping his feet.

"I told you this would happen, buddy" Max said out loud as she tried to soothe Everest. Everest tried to remain calm but his aching bladder wouldn't allow it.

"Max, he's REALLY gotta go" Yi said worriedly as she looked at Everest. He then began shaking the crate back and forth with his shoulders until it fell off the left side of the flatbed truck and roll down a steep hill that was close to the left side of the road that was not protected by any metal guard-rails.

"Get me out of here!" Jin exclaimed as they tumbled down the hill.

"I can't!" Yi replied. Everybody else was yelling as they kept on tumbling down, the sound of clanging aluminum cans filled their ears as they kept on going further down the hill. Eventually, the crate came to a complete stop once it hit the bottom, and all the walls came off completely. Everest and Peng sprung out from a giant pile of empty coke cans they were buried under and began running out into the middle of the woods with looks of desperation on their faces.

"Out of my way!" shouted Peng.

"Gotta go! Gotta go!" he added as he ran alongside Everest. Chloe saw Max lying on her back with a hand on her forehead, groaning in pain and ran over to help her up.

"Are you alright, Maxi-Max?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah, I should be" Max replied as she took her friend's hand and stood back up onto her feet.

"You feel like anything's broken? You bleeding anywhere?" Chloe asked.

"I said I'm fine, Chloe" Max said before she heard the sound of flowing water. Max only groaned in annoyance when she heard these noises.

"Urgghh! This is EXACTLY why I said Everest couldn't have more than one!" Max exclaimed as she began walking over to where Peng and Everest were doing their business.

"Hey, nobody said parenting a Yeti was easy, Max. You're gonna hit some points where he's not going to want to listen every now and again" said Chloe as she began chasing after her.

"Ugh, my head" Yi said as she sat up from the pile of empty cans, Jin eventually popped up as well. Once Jin was back onto his feet, he offered to help Yi up but she politely refused. Jin then pulled out his phone again and saw there was only one bar on the reception-meter.

"One bar, that's good enough" said Jin.

"For what?" Chloe and Yi asked in unison.

"To buy tickets home" Jin answered. Max just now had an irritated look on her face.

"Really? After what I said to you on that truck, really?" Max said before continuing to walk over to where Peng and Everest were. Jin just looked confused and shrugged his shoulders.

"What? Seriously, what?" Jin asked. Yi just groaned and rolled her eyes before following Max and Chloe.

* * *

**A/N: There you guys go! Episode Three part one! I hope you guys enjoyed this new update as well as it was a good start to this episode. Now Everest has a hankering for soda, and Max's job as a temporary parent just got harder than before, because sometimes kids just don't want to listen to their parents. The journey continues in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	12. Departure: Part 2

**A/N: And here we are! An all new update for Life is Abominable Episode Three! I'm hoping everybody's finding this new episode Hella exciting and fun so far. Because that was only the beginning, and many more exciting things are about to happen in this new update. Buckle up because starting now, the adventure continues. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max, Chloe, Everest, Yi, Jin, and Peng have arrived on the Southern Chinese shore and have made a map of their planned route to get Everest home to the Himalayas. Upon making the plan, Everest had developed a craving for soda-pop, turning him hyper and energetic. Jin has also been in low spirits, which only irritates Max and Chloe, Yi especially. Max has also had time to practice with her newest features to her rewind powers, the focused rewind and the pause. After sneaking off the ship, Everest's hankering for soda has caused him to really need to pee, which results in them getting thrown off the truck that was carrying the crate they were hiding in from anyone who may have been working for Burnish..._

* * *

**Somewhere in the jungles of Southern China 9:54 AM**

Max, whom was still irritated from Jin ignoring her words back inside the crate while it was still resting on top of the flatbed, and Everest needing to pee because of how much soda he drank walked further down the woods until she came across a clearing surrounded by blueberry bushes. Everest looked somewhat dazed and tired as he sat flat on his butt on some grass, his eyes halfway opened as he lightly giggled, and Peng was lying on his back looking up at the sky talking to himself.

"I told you this was going to happen!" Max exclaimed. She then turned to her surrogate Yeti-son with a frown on her face.

"No more soda for you for the rest of the trip" Max said with her index finger pointed at him. Everest then groaned and and then let out a moan that almost made it sound like he was saying "But Mooooooom!".

"No buts, mister. Not a single can of coke after this" Max scolded before looking down at Peng.

"Yes, waiter. I'm ready to order" Peng said in a woozy tone of voice, like he had just gotten off a roller coaster that had a million loops and corkscrews.

"I'll have some of Nai Nai's pork buns, with extra pork" Peng continued.

"Alright, get up, Peng. We gotta go" Jin said as he entered the clearing with a strict look on his face.

"Hey, don't talk to him like that. He's just a little whacked out of his mind right now from all that sugar and caffeine" Chloe said in defense of Peng.

"That's my problem, why? He did this to himself, he has to learn that there are consequences for your actions" said Jin, defending how he was talking to his younger cousin.

"And a side of pork!" Peng piped in before chuckling like a hyena.

"Don't lecture me on Chaos Theory, Jin. Max and I BOTH know how it works" Chloe said pointing her index finger into Jin's cashmere sweater-vest. A louder grumbling was heard, and everyone's heads turned to Everest.

"Aww, poor guy must be hungry" said Chloe.

"Yeah. Don't blame him, I'm pretty hungry too" Max piped in. Everest then looked around to see the blueberry bushes, and he smiled as he had just gotten an idea. He got back on all fours and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and letting out a gentle humming noise. Max's eyes went wide at the sound, she knew that sound. It was the same humming from her visions of the bridge she had been having when Everest was calling out to her for help. A light blue aura began surrounding Everest as he hummed, and the wind around him flowed throughout his pristine white fur.

"Wait, why is he making that..." Jin was about to ask, but Max, Yi, and Chloe shushed him in the middle of his question.

"Jin, shut the Hell up" Chloe whisper-scolded.

"Is he humming?" Jin asked in confusion as he continued to watch Everest. Peng then got up with a confused look on his face, and he looked to see Everest humming and surrounded by the blue glow. Max, Chloe, and Yi watched in wonder as Everest kept on humming. Max then looked to her right to see the blueberries on the bushes were growing to the size of apples, and even more were growing around her.

"Are those...?" Chloe asked, but stopped in the middle of her sentence as she was at a loss for words.

"Blueberries?" Yi finished for her as she kept on watching the blueberries grow all around her. Everest then stopped humming and began to dig in on the blueberries growing all over. Max and Peng helped themselves to some as well, Chloe had some too.

"Guys, these are delicious!" Peng shouted out as he licked purple juices off his fingers.

"Oh my dog, I know! I don't think I've ever had anything this good before!" Max said before picking up another blueberry and eating it like it was an apple.

"You're right guys, these are HELLA amazing! I wish my stomach was bigger!" Chloe exclaimed as she wiped the juices off her lips with her forearm and picked up another one.

"That doesn't make any sense. No, no. this is not possible" Jin said as he continued to watch the blueberries grow, some of them getting bigger, almost to the size of watermelons. One of them exploded right in Jin's face, staining his face, hair, and his clothes. Max, Peng, Everest, and Yi all laughed at him while Chloe just stood there with her hands on her hips, and a smirk on her face while staring down at the purple-coated Jin.

"Then how do you explain Max's time powers? Or even the existence of Yetis huh?" Chloe said with a snarky tone of voice at Jin.

"Still don't think all that crap is possible. And seriously, stop laughing you guys! This is cashmere!" Jin reprimanded the others for laughing at him. They all then stopped laughing and looks of horror on their faces formed as they saw the blueberries had grown even larger. Almost to the size of gigantic boulders.

"Uh, Jin..." Yi said, wanting to stop him in the middle of his rant to get his attention.

"What now?" Jin said before turning around. His eyes went wide and his jaw slightly agape when he saw how large the blueberries had grown.

"Everest! Do something!" Yi urged the Yeti urgently. Everest only ran away in horror, afraid of the blueberries hitting him.

"RUN!" Max and Chloe shouted in unison and began running after Everest further into the jungle. Yi and the others began running after them as well. The blueberries began to come off their stems on the bushes and began rolling after the five humans and Yeti. Everybody still kept on running and trying their best to dodge the blueberries as they kept coming down upon them.

"Chloe! Watch out!" Max exclaimed as she saw a large blueberry about to pin her down. The brunette held up her arm and turned her wrist to the right, pausing the blueberry in time as it was a mere inch away from hitting her right in the back. Chloe turned her head and saw this and gasped in surprise. She then continued running before she turned to Max and spoke.

"Thanks Max. I owe you like, a dozen new packs of Polaroid film" Chloe said gratefully while taking breaths in between her words.

"I'll have to cash in that favor after we're done with this adventure. But for now can we just focus on outrunning the giant blueberries that would put the giant boulder scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to shame?" Max asked as she kept on running.

"No problem" the blue-haired girl replied before jumping over a large rock before landing on her feet and kept on running.

"Incoming!" Yi shouted before looking up at the sky. Max and Chloe looked up and saw some of the blueberries were falling down from the sky. One of them projectile landed on Everest's back, causing him to tumble and fall down.

"EVEREST!" Max exclaimed when she saw her surrogate-son hit by the berries. She noticed more were coming down like an avalanche. Max then stopped running and stood her ground against the oncoming blueberry landslide.

"Max! What are you doing!? We have to run!" Jin said before he got hit by multiple blueberries at once. Max then held up her right hand and turned it to the right, freezing every blueberry in time where it stood. This action made Max feel woozy, and her nose began bleeding again and she fell down to her knees.

"Max!" Chloe called out and swooped her brunette friend up into her arms. The blueberries then suddenly began moving forward in time again, the pause had worn off somehow and the landslide kept moving down the slope.

"Don't worry, Mad-Max. I gotcha" Chloe said to Max in a comforting manner as she kept running away. The blueberries then kept on coming down, and kept on hitting the others, leaving purple juice stains on their bodies. Peng groaned as he was hit in the back by a large blueberry and got to his knees.

"I'm hit! Tell Nai Nai's pork buns I love them!" the nine-year-old said in a dramatic over-the-top tone of voice before Everest swooped him up into his arms and ran down the slope alongside Chloe. Everest then saw Max in her arms and got a worried look on his face.

"She's gonna be okay, big guy. She's just a little tired" Chloe said while trying to remain calm as she ran. Max then sat up in her friend's arms and then hopped back onto the grass before she turned to face the blueberry avalanche once again.

"Max, don't! You'll just be hurting yourself even more!" said Chloe, urging Max not to use her powers again. But, Max didn't listen and held up her left arm and turned her wrist counter-clockwise to make all the blueberries go back up the hill and back onto the bushes where they returned to their original size. Yi, Everest, Peng, Chloe, and Jin watched in complete awe at what they just witnessed.

"That's better" Max whispered to herself before she felt blood pouring down from both her nostrils again.

"MAX!" Yi and Chloe exclaimed together before running over to her.

"Are you alright? Max! Hey, Caulfield! You doing okay?" asked Chloe.

"Chloe? Uuuuuggghh. I don't... I don't feel so super" said Max weakly before she fell backwards into the grass and everything went black. The only thing she could hear were the voices of her friends. She could hear Everest cry out "MAMA!" in a worried and scared voice in her head before she blacked out completely.

* * *

"Guys!" Max exclaimed as she woke up. She looked around her and she realized she wasn't in the jungle anymore, she was back at the bridge from her visions. Only this time, there was no Burnish, no Zara, not a single one of his armed goons or vehicles in sight. There was no Everest either, she was totally alone. She stood back up onto her feet and looked all around her, not a single person in sight. And to make things worse, it was right in the middle of a blizzard.

"Everest! Yi! Chloe! Anybody!" Max cried out. She then heard footsteps slowly approach her, but then that's when she realized from the sound the steps were making that they were not human footprints at all, they were hoof-prints. Max saw in the distance, right in the middle of the icy and treacherous blizzard stood a silhouette of an animal.

"Wait a minute... I-I-I recognize that. That's the deer from Arcadia Bay!" said Max to herself while she stared into the silhouette. Max could recall what the janitor at Blackwell Academy, Samuel, had told her. This deer could have been her spirit animal, or it could have been Rachel Amber's spirit since she and Chloe knew somehow, that Rachel was guiding them in their quest for the truth in who had murdered her as well as who was responsible for the Dark Room.

"What are you doing here?" Max asked the deer as she approached it. The closer she got, the deer remained where it stood, it didn't even move.

"Why am I having these visions? Why did Everest choose me?" Max asked the deer while hugging her arms and rubbing them up and down to keep warm in the middle of the cold. The deer then began walking away into the distance until Max could barely make out what the silhouette was anymore. She then began to run after the deer into the blizzard until she found herself somewhere completely different. She was now on top of a mountain, and the sun was setting over the horizon, the sky had turned a beautiful shade of pink and the blizzard had stopped.

"W-Where am I now? Where's the bridge? What is this place?" Max asked as she looked behind her to see that the bridge was far down below at the very bottom of the mountain. Max's ears then caught the sound of large footsteps. Each step made crunching noises in the snow the closer whoever or whatever was making the noises got. The brunette then looked in front of her to see another silhouette, only this time it was a large humanoid looking creature covered in fur from the looks of the fuzzy ends of the silhouette's body. Max could also see the creature's eyes were glowing blue, like Everest's eyes.

"No way" Max whispered in awe to herself. She then saw it was looking down at her.

"Why?... Why me?" Max asked out loud to the beast before she felt blood come down her nose once again and drip down from her chin, leaving tiny little droplets onto the ground that stained the snow red. Max then touched her face and looked at her fingers to show more blood sticking to her fingertips before she heard a voice speak inside her head. She could only guess it belonged to the creature that stood before her in the snow.

_"You were not chosen by mere circumstance, Max Caulfield. You were chosen by fate" _a loud booming echoing voice said inside her head before she began feeling dizzy again and fell backwards into the snow. Everything went black again.

* * *

**Somewhere outside the Yellow Mountain. 7:44 PM**

Max's vision had been blurry as she slowly opened her eyes. All she could make out were shapes and colors. But her vision had cleared up to see Chloe and Yi standing right above her looking worried and scared at the same time.

"Uggghh" Max groaned as she sat up and rubbed her eyes to help adjust her vision.

"Guys! She's awake!" Yi shouted out.

"Not so loud, she's just coming to. Give her some room" Max heard Chloe reprimand Yi on the volume of her voice. Max then looked to see Chloe looking relieved with her hands resting on her shoulders.

"You alright, Max? You went dark on us for a moment" asked Chloe, concerned for the well-being of her best friend.

"I'm alright, Chloe. Just had a dizzy spell was all" Max said as she stood up to her feet with some assistance from her blue-haired companion.

"Must've been some dizzy spell. You've been unconscious for the entire day" said Chloe. Max then looked to see Yi holding out a plastic bottle of water to her.

"Here, I figure you might want something to drink" Yi gently said.

"Thanks" Max politely thanked her friend before taking it into her hand and twisting the cap off before she took a large sip. After that one sip, half the bottle was empty.

"Wow, you must've been really thirsty" Yi said when she saw how much water Max had drank. A worried whimper caught Max's ears and she looked in front of her to see Everest with Peng standing right next to him.

"Are you alright, mama?" she heard Everest ask in her mind.

"I'm fine, Everest. I'll be okay" said Max out loud as she stood up and walked over to the young Yeti, giving him a hug, which he happily returned.

"He was really worried about you. He wouldn't leave your side all day" Peng told her.

"Yi had to pry him away every now and again to make sure you had your room to rest" Chloe added. Max then looked up to see the stars were out in the sky, which made her heart sink to her stomach.

"Wait, what time is it?" asked Max.

"Almost eight-o-clock" Peng said while looking down at his wrist-watch.

"And where are we now?" Max asked before breaking her hug with Everest apart.

"We're just outside the perimeter of the Yellow Mountain. It's getting pretty dark so we decided we're just going to go over the mountain in the morning" said Yi. Peng then turned to see Jin still covered in blueberry juice.

"Hey, Jin! You get enough to eat?" asked Peng. Jin turned his head slightly with a deadpan look on his face before speaking to his younger cousin.

"Let's just say, that I've got blueberries in places where blueberries should NEVER be!" Jin exclaimed before walking away. Max looked down to see Jin had two large blueberries in the back of his pants, which made her start laughing out loud. Once Chloe and Yi saw it, they began laughing along with her.

"Nice glutes, Jin! Been doing lots of squats lately?" Chloe teased while wiping a tear away from her eye due to all her laughing. Max then took her Polaroid out of her bag and then took a photo of Jin walking around with the blueberries in the back of his pants. Jin then gave Max a frown as she took the photo out of the camera and shook it to make it develop faster.

"You better not post that anywhere" said Jin.

"You can't exactly post Polaroids on the internet unless you take a picture of the picture itself. Besides, these pictures aren't meant for the internet. They're meant for us to look at so we can remember everything we've ever been through on this trip" Max said as she put her camera and the newly taken photo back inside her bag. Jin just scoffed and walked away again, blueberries still carried around his backside. Max then let out a loud yawn and stretched her arms out to the side.

"Damn, Caulfield, you still want to sleep even though you've been unconscious half the day?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah, it's just... it's been a really weird day today" Max replied.

"You can say that again. Turns out Everest can do magic, you have some weird new abilities, a giant landslide of blueberries, we got Everest addicted to soda, and you go unconscious for pretty much half the entire day. I'm on the same boat as you" Chloe said before letting out a yawn herself. Max then walked over to Everest and Peng who were playing together like best friends. The sight was enough to bring a smile to Max's face, but she had to break it up because of how late it was getting.

"Hey guys? We should be hitting the sack pretty soon. We got a long way to go ahead of us" Max said.

"Aw, but we're not tired" Peng complained. Everest nodded in agreement.

"Not surprising considering you drank pretty much forty sodas each today. God, that a lot of caffeine you two ingested today" Chloe said. Max then got an idea and turned to her friend.

"Maybe we can help them get it out of their systems? You pack that waterproof bluetooth speaker?" asked Max.

"You know I did, Super-Max. Why?" Chloe asked as she took the speaker out of her bag and handed it to the brunette.

"We're gonna do something fun" Max said as she began linking her phone to the speaker. Once the link was completed, put her camera bag down on the floor and placed the speaker right next to it before walking over to where Everest and Peng were playing.

"Alright you guys, since you guys are all hyper and jacked up on sugar, we're going to be doing something that'll help you get it all out" Max told them.

"What's that?" Peng asked curiously. Everest only tilted his head to the side with one eye raised, wondering what Max had planned as well.

"We're going to have a dance party" Max said before she looked down at her phone and scrolled through her music to find a good song to play. She then found the perfect one to play and she turned back to the two young ones with a smile on her face.

"You guys ready to party?" she asked. Everest and Peng nodded excitedly.

"Well then, let's boogie the night away, boys" Max said before pressing the play button and sound began emitting from the bluetooth speaker.

**(Start playing "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice until you read this next part of the story until it says to stop)**

"Aw yeah, I love this song!" Chloe said as she began shaking her hips side to side while the raised her arms above her head. Max shimmied her shoulders up and down while she swayed her hips left and right. Peng and Everest began dancing too, the two were hopping up and down while fist-pumping into the air.

"There you go! Shake it!" Max encouraged the two. She began copying their dance moves and began dancing alongside the two of them. Chloe was now watching and bobbing her head up and down to the beat before she dug into Max's camera bag and took out her Polaroid camera.

"That's right, keep on partying you crazy kids!" Chloe said before she took a photo of Max dancing with Peng and Everest. Once the first photo was taken, she placed in Max's bag before she took another photo. This time it was of Everest and Peng standing back to back with their arms crossed against their chest like they were rappers.

"Oh yeah, that's a good one right there" Chloe said before placing the photo she took in Max's bag.

"Shake that fluffy butt, Everest! Shake what your mama gave ya!" Yi called out, which made Everest stop dancing and look confused for a moment.

"It's just an expression, silly. Just keep dancing. Come on, Everest, dance with me" Max said before she began doing the Dougie. Everest then began standing on his hind-legs and began copying her dance moves.

"Yeah, just like that. Do what I do, sweetie" Max sweetly encouraged as the two continued dancing alongside each other. While the two kept on dancing, Chloe took another picture of Max and Everest doing the Dougie together before she swapped out the film pack for a new one. Peng then jumped back in and continued to dance, this time he was doing the Macarena.

"Let's dance like Peng, Everest. Copy Peng" Max said to Everest in her thoughts. Everest nodded in reply and the three of them were now doing the Macarena together. After a while, the three of them put their hands on the backs of their heads and began moving their hips to side to side. Chloe got another photo before Yi ran up to join them.

"Glad to see you could join us, Yi" Max said happily to see her new friend join in on the fun.

"Hey Everest, watch this" Yi said before she began doing the robot. Everest then began mirroring all of Yi's moves. Max and Chloe followed suit. While the four friends did the robot together, Chloe took one last Polaroid of them.

"You guys are Hella awesome dancers" Chloe said in a voice that made her sound like a robot before putting the last photo and Max's camera back inside her bag. The blue-haired girl then ran up to join them in dance and began to shuffle her feet on the grass. Everest then began to shuffle too, kicking some grass up into the air as he copied his Auntie Chloe's dancing.

"Not bad, big guy. Not bad at all" Chloe said as she began doing the Moon-Walk. Everest attempted to copy this dance move to, but all it resulted in was making him trip backwards and fall down. The ground shook when Everest fell and caused Peng, Yi, Chloe, and Max to fall down and laugh up at the sky. Jin just stood there with his arms crossed, shaking his head while he leaned back against a tree.

"You need to learn to grow up. All of you" Jin muttered under his breath.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

"How're you guys feeling now? Still pretty hyper?" asked Max.

"Are you kidding? I feel like I'm gonna pass out any second" said Peng in reply. Everest nodded in agreement.

"Good, because it's bedtime for you guys" Max said before she stood back up to her camera bag and bluetooth speaker.

"Fully agreed. I'm exhausted" Yi said while Max disconnected her phone to the speaker and put her camera bag back over her shoulder.

"What? Why are we stopping?" Jin asked.

"Because it's ten minutes past eight and in a few more minutes we won't be able to see our hands in front of our faces" Chloe said as she leaned against Everest's big fluffy belly as a pillow.

"And THAT is exactly why we need to keep moving, alright? Come on, Peng, we gotta get back to that dock" Jin said before he started to walk in the opposite direction of where the mountain was. He then spotted several eyes belonging to a coven of owls staring at him, which caused him to freak out and run back to the others.

"First thing in the morning" said Jin before rejoining the others. Max and Chloe just rolled their eyes with smirks on their faces.

* * *

**A/N: Part two is complete everybody! Yay! I hope you guys had a blast with his update. I thought the dance party thing was a fun little idea to include into the story. And what is with Max's visions? What do they mean? And what did that mysterious creature's saying have to do with their mission to get Everest home? Keep on reading the next updates to find out! Please review, thanks!**


	13. Departure: Part 3

**A/N: Alright everybody, I take it you all know what time it is, right? Time for a new update for Episode Three! I hope the last update was enough to leave you guys craving for more, because now it's going to delve into Max and Chloe's journey to Mt. Everest even more. As well as satisfy all of those who can't get enough of Max and Everest's mother/son relationship. So, let's continue! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max, Chloe, Yi, Jin, and Peng discover Everest has powers of his own, and can command the elemental forces of nature around him. Everest demonstrates this power by making several bushes bloom gigantic blueberries that only get bigger and bigger, causing an avalanche that sent some of them coming down from the sky like comets from space. Max uses her focused rewind ability to reverse the avalanche, but fulls unconscious as a result of overexerting her powers. While unconscious, Max has another vision of the bridge and encounters Rachel Amber's spirit doe as well as a giant silhouette of an unknown creature standing at the top of Mt. Everest. After awakening from her vision, Max helps the still hyper Peng and Everest wind down from all the caffeine they drank with a dance party in the jungle, in which everyone but Jin took part in. Now, the group turn in for the night to get a proper night's rest before heading off into the Yellow Mountains by morning time..._

* * *

**Somewhere outside the Yellow Mountain. 8:03 PM**

Jin laid down next to Max and Chloe who were staring all the way up at the sky. Max was using her camera bag as a pillow, and Chloe rolled up her jacket to make a pillow of her own. Yi walked over to them and laid right next to Chloe, using her own backpack as a pillow as well.

"Is it a problem if I lay down next to you guys?" asked Yi. Chloe only shook her head before she spoke to reply to her question.

"Have a seat, Pete" she said. Yi then nodded and looked all the up at the beautiful night sky. It looked absolutely amazing to the young girl, she had only seen such a beautiful display of stars before in edited photos used for smartphone wallpapers.

"There's so many of 'em" Max whispered.

"What? Bugs?" Jin said in an irritated tone of voice before he slapped the side of his face to squash a fly that was resting on his cheek. Now, a mix of black and brown stained his cheek where the fly he swatted once rested.

"Stars" Max corrected.

"I know right? I didn't think the sky could look this beautiful at night" Yi said in agreement.

"Reminds me of when Rachel and I used to hang out in her room. She had this cool globe-lamp thingy that projected stars onto the ceiling. It's like we were floating around the galaxy, and we also liked to imagine we were drifting among the stars while holding hands" Chloe piped in.

"Rachel Amber must have been very special to you, huh?" Yi asked.

"I loved her. She saved me during a time in my life where I was broken and had nobody else. I owed so much to her, and I was devastated to learn she was murdered. I'm still haunted by dreams of Max and I digging up her body in the junkyard. All I ever wanted to do was kill Nathan Prescott for what he did with Jefferson's help" Chloe explained. Max then turned to face Chloe, shifting to her side to look at her better.

"Chloe, I'm so sorry about Rachel. And... I'm not trying to replace Rachel, I never could replace what the two of you had" Max began.

"I know you're not. And honestly, I've never been more grateful that you were there to pick up the pieces and help me get my revenge on both Nathan and Jefferson" Chloe said as she turned around as well to face Max. Jin and Yi both sat up and watched as the two American girls conversed about the past.

"And... I've been thinking" Max said.

"About what?" asked Chloe.

"Like I said, I'm not trying to replace Rachel. But... if you wanted... we could..." Max said, struggling to find a way to make it sound less corny. Chloe then placed her index finger on Max's lips to signal her to stop talking before she spoke.

"I would like that. I'd like that a whole lot, Max" the blue-haired girl answered. Max was surprised at her response, she was expecting her to get mad and rage at her for trying to take Rachel's place. But instead, she was being understanding about it, and even smiled too.

"You would?" Max asked.

"Yeah. Remember when you stayed the night at my place after we took over the Blackwell swimming pool?" Chloe asked.

"And when you dared me to kiss you the next morning?" asked Max with an amused tone of voice.

"I wasn't actually expecting you to kiss me, to be honest. Took me by surprise a little bit. But when your lips actually touched mine for just a second, it felt like a bajillion fireworks exploded at the back of my head. It was honestly, one of the best feelings of my life" Chloe explained. Max blushed at how Chloe described their first kiss.

"So, does this make us girlfriends now?" asked Max.

"Hella yes it does. Consider me your girlfriend and live-in gal pal" answered Chloe before lying back down on her back.

"You already were my live-in gal pal before this whole thing, but thanks for that" Max replied before she lied back down on her back as well.

"No problemo, hippie" Chloe replied, making Max snicker a bit at being called 'Hippie' at the end of that sentence. Yi and Jin smiled before they lied back down. Jin's smile faded and became irritated once again as he began swatting away at the bugs in the air.

"How come they're only swarming me?" asked Jin.

"Maybe they're ladybugs" Yi suggested, which made Max and Chloe start to laugh out loud. This earned Yi a fist-bump from Chloe. Jin made a mock laugh before replying to Yi's joke.

"Not funny" Jin said.

"It's Hella funny, pretty-boy" said Chloe. The four of them resumed looking up at the stars and enjoyed the silence until they heard Peng spoke up.

"My mom told me that the stars are our ancestors who always watched over us" he said.

"My mom says that too" Yi replied. The thought of that made Chloe smile. She then began thinking of her father, William, who died in a car accident while on his way to pick up her mother from the supermarket.

"That sounds really nice. Makes me wonder if my dad's up there, watching over me, maybe even guiding me" the blue-haired girl said.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Even though some of the choices you made in your life weren't exactly the right ones, I know for a fact that William would be proud of you" said Max, wanting to add to the conversation.

"Thanks, Max. I needed to hear that" Chloe said before a tear fell down her eye and she wiped it away with the backside of her hand. Peng then ran up to Yi and swiped her backpack from underneath her head and emptied it out onto the ground before putting it on his head to make himself look like a monster.

"My backpack? Peng, seriously?" Yi asked before Peng walked over to Everest wearing the backpack mask and making the Yeti laugh. Max smiled at hearing Everest laugh, and it made her heart feel warm all over whenever she heard or saw Everest happy and having fun. She wondered to herself if this is what a mother's love feels like while she rested her hand over where her heart is.

"No, no, no! Great, zero reception. I'm completely cut off from my social life!" Jin exclaimed as he looked around for any form of signal on his phone.

"Oh boo-hoo, how traumatic" Chloe replied sarcastically.

"I'm siding with Chloe on this. It's not the end of the world if you're cut off from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or whatever the Hell it is you're on your phone 24/7 for" said Yi.

"Yeah, Yi! It is! Because, unlike you, I like having friends! I'm not some kind of a..." Jin said, trying to find the right word for how he would describe Yi, but the girl finished for him, and she sounded pretty mad at what Jin was going to say.

"A loner? Is that what you were going to say? Well, for your info, I'm a self-proclaimed loner. There's a difference, okay? And I DO happen to have friends, they happen to be lying right next to us listening to your popular-boy BS right now" said Yi. Max and Chloe felt touched and honored at the same time when Yi said that she considered them her friends even though they only knew her for just a few days.

"Fine, because in the morning, Peng and I are going back to the city" Jin said while he tapped away on his phone, hoping for even a single bar of reception to make it work. Max then sat up and faced him.

"I'm not leaving him, neither is Chloe" Max said.

"Me either" said Yi.

"Max..." Jin said with a tone of voice that made it sound like he was giving them a warning.

"Everest chose me. I don't know why of all people I was chosen to take him back home, but I'm not just going to give up and go back. Besides, you've seen what he can do. He's amazing, he's got powers like me! I mean, I dunno if he can rewind time like I can or not, but, still though! It's almost... magical" said Max.

"Exactly! That's exactly what it is! Magical!" Yi exclaimed with a large smile on her face.

"Oh, so now he's a magical Yeti? Do you realize how crazy you sound?" asked Jin.

"Do I need to freeze you in time again like I did on the roof?" Max said holding up her hand, getting ready to follow through on her threat to use her powers to freeze him in time once again. Jin's expression went pale and he held up his hands before shaking his head a bit. He did NOT want to be frozen in time like before.

"That's what I thought" Max said before putting her hand back down.

"Look what he did with the blueberries. That's no natural phenomenon, Jin. Only someone with powers could do something like that. It makes you wonder if there are other people like Max and Everest who have powers too" Chloe said as she sat up and joined in on the discussion. They all looked to Everest and Peng who were having a thumb war, Everest began to laugh out loud while Peng exclaimed "You Cheated!" at the large Yeti. The two then began to playfully wrestle and roll around with one another and laugh as they did so.

"Huh, thought that dance party you threw would have drained their batteries, Max" Chloe said.

"Yeah, I'd have expected them to be asleep right now after that" Yi said in agreement.

"What do you expect, they're just kids" Max replied. Chloe and Yi gasped and stood up from where they lied down before.

"Are you serious?" Chloe asked.

"What?" Max replied.

"Everest is really just a kid?" asked Yi.

"Yes, he is. I know he is, because he told me. Last night, when we got on board that ship that took us to that port, I heard him speak inside my head, he called me 'Mama'. He's just a child, he's probably Peng's age in Yeti years" Max explained.

"That explains his hyper-active behavior. Only children have that kind of energy inside them. And it explains why both Peng and Everest get along so well" Yi said.

"I know I joked about you being a Yeti-Mama before but now... holy shiznit! Max, you really ARE a Yeti-Mama!" Chloe exclaimed in awe at what she had just heard.

"Right, there's no way that giant thing is a kid" Jin said while crossing his arms against his chest with his eyes narrowed.

"Yeti telepathy doesn't lie, Jin" Chloe said in defense of Max's statement. Yi then picked up three rocks, one was short while the other three were tall. Max and Chloe watched as Yi ran down and stood in front of Everest.

"Watch, I'll prove it to you" Yi said to Jin before turning to face the Yeti. She then held up the shortest rock in front of him.

"This is you" she said before placing it down on the ground in front of him. After that, she placed the two tall rocks behind the short one and close together as well.

"And, your parents" Yi concluded.

"Aw, you have your mother's eyes" Peng said softly. Everest then got a sad look as he stared down at the rocks. Max began to panic and ran over towards her surrogate-son.

"It's okay, sweetie. Don't cry, we're going to get you home to your mother and father. That's a promise" Max said in the voice only an angel would speak in. Everest then looked up at Max and then back down at the rocks before looking over at Max once again.

"Hoo-boy. This could be a problem" Chloe said in a worried tone of voice.

"What is?" Yi asked.

"Yeah, what's a problem?" asked Peng. Everest then walked up to Max and placed his large hand on her chest and stomach. The young Yeti then grunted in a way that sounded like he was trying to formulate words. They all heard as Everest's grunt came out as the word "Mama". Yi, Chloe, Peng, and Jin gasped and went wide eyed at this revelation. Max then shook her head before she picked up the two rocks that were supposed to represent Everest's parents.

"No, THESE are your parents. I'm just... Max" she said, trying to convince Everest that he already had a family. Everest shook his head and placed his hand on her chest and stomach again. Everest grunted out the word "Mama" again in response to this.

"That's what worries me. What happens when we finally make it to the Himalayas? Everest's already grown so attached to Max already and he clearly sees her as his new mother" said Chloe.

"It makes sense actually. He was alone and locked up a prisoner inside that compound with nobody to cry out for help except Max. It's the most logical thing for Everest to trust Max" Yi explained. Max then sighed and decided to play along with it before she walked closer to Everest.

"Yeah. I'm your mama, big guy" Max said out loud before planting a kiss above his nose. Jin just watched in silence, both in awe and in shock. This was a lot of him to take in, and he felt like the world wasn't normal anymore. He hated change and wanting things to go back to how they were. Then he began thinking about the words Max said to him back on the truck, he wondered if her words were really true, or just something she said because she didn't like how he lived his life.

"Still though, we need to get him back home to his birth-family on Mt. Everest" Yi said. Jin then broke his silence.

"What about your family? Don't they need you too? Always busy, never home. What's that all about Yi?" Yi looked offended at what Jin had just said and Chloe looked even more offended.

"Hey! Too far, pretty-boy! Too. Effing. FAR!" Chloe said pointing her index finger at his nose. She was so close to punching him in the face so hard his nose would break, but before she could, Yi spoke up to reply to what Jin had said.

"Don't talk to me about family. You have no idea! No idea! Your life is so easy, Jin! Do you even want to be a doctor? Or do you just think you'll... I dunno, you'll look good in white?" Yi asked.

"Alright, call me shallow all you want. At least I'm not delusional or have superpowers like your new friends you seem to care so much about" said Jin as he began walking away. Yi wasn't finished talking though.

"Max is right you know. One day you're going to die and all everybody's ever going to remember about you is how you were always on your phone and had all these lady friends you barely even knew. The world's out there, Jin, not on your phone" Yi concluded before walking over to where she was lying down before and went to sleep. Max and Chloe then looked towards each other.

"We should probably get some sleep too, Max" Chloe said before walking over to where Yi was.

"Agreed" she said before walking over to Everest and gave him another kiss on the bridge of his nose area.

"Goodnight, Everest. Mama will see you in the morning" Max said using her telepathy.

"Goodnight, Mama" Everest replied in Max's thoughts before he lied down on his belly and used his arms like a pillow before closing his eyes and allowing sleep to take control. Max and Peng then walked over to the others and lied down next to Jin, Yi, and Chloe before they descended into a peaceful dreamless slumber.

* * *

**The Next Morning. 6:02 AM**

Max woke up earlier than the others. She noticed that the sky above them still had stars flickering around it, while a sheet of bright pink slightly intruded on the beautiful dark blue night sky. The sun hadn't even fully risen yet, but she was still awake. She then looked to see Jin, Peng, and Chloe were still asleep on the ground but Everest and Jin weren't there. Max felt a small wave of worry flow over her before she heard the sound of a violin fill the air. The brunette then saw the silhouettes of a girl and a Yeti on the edge of a cliff, she could only guess that was Yi playing and she had Everest as an audience.

"There you are" Max whispered so she wouldn't wake the others up. Max then stood up and placed her camera bag on her shoulder before walking over to where she could find Everest and Yi. After she got close enough, she hid behind a tree so she wouldn't be seen by the two of them, but she couldn't resist watching Yi play the violin so beautifully. But then, something about the tune she played felt familiar to Max.

"Wait, I know this tune" she whispered before she took out her Polaroid and took a picture of Everest watching Yi play the violin. The flash and the sound of the photo being printed was enough to make Everest look to see Max, and Yi stopped playing the minute she saw the flash.

"That was... beautiful" said Max before she shook the photo to make it develop faster and placed it back inside her bag with her camera. Yi only smiled at the compliment.

"Thanks, my dad played this song for me when I was little whenever I had a bad dream. It helped me get to sleep in seconds" Yi explained.

"That was Hallelujah right?" asked Max. Yi looked confused and Everest raised an eye in confusion.

"Wait, what? What did you call it?" Yi asked.

"The song you were playing. I recognize it back in America. It's called "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. It's actually a very famous song. A lot of different artists have done their own versions of it over the years. Two of my favorite covers are from Lindsey Stirling and Rufus Wainwright" Max told her.

"Is that what it is? I always thought it was a tune he wrote" Yi said in amazement while staring down at the violin.

"Yeah. I've heard the song so many times I actually know it by heart" Max told her.

"Really? You mind uh... singing it for me? I'll provide the instrumentals" Yi asked, getting ready to play again.

"Alright, yeah. That sounds great" Max said before clearing her voice and took in a deep breath before she exhaled and nodded to Yi to start playing the music. Yi then began to play while Max began to sing the lyrics.

_"Now I heard there was a secret chord_

_That David played, and it pleased the lord_

_But you don't really care for music, do you?_

_It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth_

_The minor fall, the major lift_

_The baffled king composing Hallelujah!_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah"_

Yi couldn't believe was she was hearing, Max's voice was breathtakingly amazing. She felt like her father was singing to her through Max. The song was special to her because it reminded her so much of her father, but she didn't know all that much about it. Now that Max had told her and began singing it while she played, it only made the song all the more special. Everest was also watching as Max sang, he had a dreamy look on his face with a relaxed smile to go with it. He loved his surrogate mother's singing. Yi kept on playing, wanting to hear more of the song.

_"Your faith was strong but you needed proof_

_You saw her bathing on the roof_

_Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya_

_She tied you to the kitchen chair_

_She broke your throne, she cut your hair_

_And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah!_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah"_

Little did Max and Yi know that their playing and singing had woken up Chloe, Peng, and Jin. They looked around and saw that it was still very early in the morning, and Max, Yi, and Everest weren't there. They didn't have to exchange words to show how worried they were, but they began following the music and the singing over to the edge of the cliff that overlooked the Yellow Mountains to see Yi and Max singing and playing a song together while Everest watched the brunette girl in awe at how incredible her voice was. The three smiled at how beautiful it was before sitting down on the grass and quietly watched the song continue.

_"Maybe I've been here before_

_I know this room, I've walked this floor_

_I used to live alone before I knew you_

_I've seen your flag on the marble arch_

_Love is not a victory march_

_It's a cold, and it's a broken Hallelujah!_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah_

_Hallelujah"_

Max and Yi sang the "Hallelujah" verse of the song together when that part had come. Max was equally surprised at Yi's singing. Her voice was just as good as her violin playing, and Everest enjoyed every moment of his Mama and Yi making beautiful music together.

**SNAP!**

The three turned their heads to see Chloe, Jin, and Peng standing underneath the shade of the trees watching them perform. Chloe was smiling and so was Jin, Peng was genuinely surprised, he had never actually heard Yi play before.

"Wait! Don't stop! It's really good!" Peng urged as he ran over to Max, Everest, and Yi. The Chinese girl looked embarrassed and placed her violin back inside it's case before shutting it loudly. Max wanted Yi to keep playing, but she couldn't stop her from putting the instrument away. It slightly broke Max's heart to see Yi look so embarrassed and ashamed at her amazing talent for music.

"Max, I had no idea you could sing like that. That was beautiful! I didn't even think ever heard you sing before, it was amazing! Yi, your playing was beautiful too" Chloe said as she praised both of them on their performances.

"Your Nai Nai said you stopped playing after your dad died" Peng said. Jin looked to Peng with narrowed eyes and began to scold the younger boy.

"Peng! Little insensitive!" he reprimanded.

"It's okay, Jin. Really" Yi reassured him with a small smile on her face.

"Was this your dad's violin?" Peng asked as he placed his hand on top of the case that carried the instrument Yi played so beautifully alongside Max's voice.

"Yeah" she replied simply.

"You know, I really liked your dad" Peng said, hoping his compliment would give Yi a sliver of comfort.

"Thanks, Peng" Yi replied. Jin had a sad look of guilt on his face, he began regretting everything he said last night. But, being the prideful person he was, changed his look to a small smile and turned to face Max and Yi.

"Well, we better head out if we're gonna make it to the Yangtze River" Jin said.

"Yeah, we should. We need to stay ahead of Burnish and that psycho scientist of his if we're going to make it there without a problem" said Chloe. Max nodded in agreement before turning to face the Yeti and speak to him using her telepathic bond with him.

"Alright Everest, time to go. We're going over the Yellow Mountains" said Max with her thoughts. Everest nodded in reply to show Max he understood and began walking alongside her. Yi then looked over to Jin, hopeful that he changed his mind about everything he thought and said and he would continue to accompany them on their quest to the Himalayas.

"You're coming?" Yi said with hope in her voice.

"Yeah. I checked and Dahe village has boats leaving for the city every hour" Jin told her. Yi sighed sadly and Chloe shot a death glare at him. The blue-haired girl hated that he was only keeping up with them just so he could get something he wanted. She shook her head at him with disapproval in her eyes before turning around and placed her arm around Yi for comfort and reassurance as they started following Max and Everest. Chloe then turned her head to face Jin as she walked.

"When we get there you can take a boat back, but Yi and I are still going to help Max take Everest home. We're going to get there with or without you, Jin" Chloe said with scorn in her voice before turning her head back to face the road ahead of them. Jin and Peng then began walking as well to keep up with the others as they began their long hike over the Yellow Mountains.

* * *

**A/N: Part three is complete! I hope you all liked this one, even though the walking part of the journey hadn't really picked back up yet. But we did get some emotional moments as well as a duet of "Hallelujah" with Max and Yi, which I really enjoyed writing. But, next update, the journey continues as Max, Chloe, Everest and the others begin to climb the Yellow Mountains. Please review, thanks!**


	14. Departure: Part 4

**A/N: Another new update for Episode Three of Life is Abominable is ready! And this time, the journey continues for REAL this time. I know last update they didn't really continue with the whole walking part of their trip, but I promise you that today we can officially continue the quest to the Himalayas. So, let's recap what happened last update and start today's! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_While resting under the stars, Max and Chloe reveal their feelings for one another and decide from that moment on that they will be each other's girlfriends. Max also reveals to the rest of the group that Everest is indeed a child, which explains why Peng and him get along so well. Jin on the other hand, only continues to dismiss the existence of the supernatural as well as people with powers like Max, leading Chloe and Yi to call him out on how shallow he is. The next morning, Max and Yi share a duet to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" with Yi playing instrumentals while Max sings the lyrics with Everest and unknowingly the others as their audience. Their journey to get Everest back home to the Himalayas continues as the five friends escort the Yeti over the Yellow Mountains..._

* * *

**The Yellow Mountains. 8:15 AM**

Peng and Everest ran ahead of everybody else, laughing and playing tag while Max, Chloe, Yi, and Jin followed closely behind. As Max walked, she took in the beautiful scenery from the sides of the cliffs. She had always dreamed of seeing beautiful places like the one she was at right now, to walk through the images normally seen in travel guides and documentaries on the Discovery Channel. She felt the sudden urge to start taking photos of all the majestic views before her.

"Now, on the map, that village is only a centimeter away. Shouldn't be that far" Jin said, ruining Max's train of thought while she was out staring over the horizon. Max was irked at how Jin was still behaving the way he was yesterday and how her words as well as Yi's from last night didn't change or affect him in any way.

"Jin, that's a priority for you. But it's not for the rest of us. Everest getting home safely without that sadist Zara catching is more important than however it is you get home" said Chloe.

"Yeah, but like you said before: That's YOUR priority, not mine. The sooner I get to that village, the sooner Peng and I can get on a boat back to Shanghai and I don't have to worry about anymore loners, time-rewinding hipsters, blue-haired punks and Yetis" Jin retorted. Yi just rolled her eyes at Jin's statement before piping in herself.

"It must just be on the other side of the..." Yi said before pausing in mid-sentence and stopping where she stood. Max, Chloe, and Jin stopped where they stood to face what Yi was staring at. It was the Yellow Mountains, and a single stone pathway was all that guided them to the other side and safely to the Yangtze River.

"The Yellow Mountains!" Yi finished. Max took her Polaroid out of her bag and positioned herself to get the perfect framing to capture the beautiful landscape that stood before her.

"One photo... for posterity" said Max before she pressed the button and took the photo. Once the photo printed and she shook it to make the developing go faster, she placed them back in her bag and began walking ahead of the others.

"This really is beautiful, wish Arcadia Bay had beautiful sights like this. Then it would have been worth living in" Chloe said as she followed Max closely behind her.

"Wait, wait! We're not going over that!" Jin said, causing the others to stop and look up with deadpan glares at him.

"This is the route we agreed on while we were still on the boat. We can't turn back now, we don't know if Burnish and his cronies are still chasing us" Max told him.

"Besides, I'm pretty sure commercial airline regulations don't allow Yetis on any form of aircraft whatsoever" Chloe added.

"She's got a point Jin. Besides, pilots and flight attendants would have sold us out to those guys the minute we passed through the metal detectors" Yi said. Jin just rolled his eyes and groaned at the responses his words had gotten him.

"Come on, Everest! I'll race you!" Peng said cheerfully as he ran ahead. Everest looked to Max with a smile on his face, wondering if he could run after Peng. Max just chuckled and nodded with a smile on her face before she responded to the look on his face.

"Yes, you can go play. Just stay close so I can see you, okay?" Max said out loud. Everest gasped happily before running off to catch up to Peng. Max swore she could have heard Everest say "Thanks, Mama! I love you!" in her thoughts before he ran off to play. Max was taken aback at what he had just said, it was the first time she heard besides her own parents say they loved her. But for some reason, she found herself blushing as well as on the brink of tears when she heard Everest say that he loved her using his telepathic link to her.

"Max? You okay?" Yi asked.

"Oh, uh... yeah. I'm alright. Let's keep moving" Max said before she began following Everest and Peng at a normal pace. Yi looked back to face Chloe and Jin before shrugging, letting them know she had no idea why Max was looking so emotional just a moment ago before she followed her friend. The others followed suit and began their hike over the mountains

* * *

**One Hour and Thirty Minutes Later**

The hike wasn't even halfway completed, and everybody was still pushing through. Their legs felt as heavy as cinder-blocks as they continued to walk along the stone pathway with stone rails guarding the edges so nobody would fall in. Everest and Peng on the other hand, still had more than enough energy to keep on going, nor did they feel any aching feet or joint pains from walking so long.

"Geez, my feet feel like they've been walking on concrete without any shoes on" Yi said.

"I'm feeling you there, Yi. This is actually one of the reasons why I've never really been big into camping or hiking. I mean, it LOOKS fun. You see pictures of people having fun while out camping with their friends or their families, but that's how they trick you into thinking it's fun. In reality, it's the biggest pain you'll ever feel in your life" Chloe told her.

"Lemme guess, no internet or cell reception?" asked Jin.

"No, idiot. I'm talking about the agonizingly painful hikes that take so long to end until your feet bleed, poisonous plants, bugs, and reptiles almost everywhere you go, the threat of being mauled and eaten by wild animals, especially almost freezing to death while you sleep when all you've got it just a sleeping bag that barely does anything to keep you warm" Chloe explained. Yi just nodded in reply with a look of interest on her face.

"Okay, pretty solid points. But do you know any PROS to camping instead of the cons?" asked Yi.

"Ehh, honestly I don't really know" Chloe replied. Max then stopped walking and turned to face the other two girls.

"Would you consider what we did last night camping? I mean, we didn't have a fire or tents or anything like that but... we spent the entire night in the middle of a Chinese jungle looking up at the stars. It was actually pretty beautiful, not usually the type of thing you'd see in a huge city, but only in remote locations like where we slept last night have beautiful skies that show off the entire galaxy can you see something like that" Max explained. Yi and Chloe looked at each other and nodded in agreement to what Max had just said.

"Okay, so that's one pro. Any others?" asked Yi. Max stayed silent for a bit before letting out an embarrassed chuckle.

"Yeah, I've got nothing else except for that. Chloe might actually have won this argument" said Max, surrendering that Chloe had more solid points about camping than she did.

"Honestly, Step-tool would have brought up more pros. He mostly used camping trips to go hunting, but he hasn't really been hunting in a real long time. I think he might have given up after the storm actually" said Chloe. They all continued to walk until they finally caught up with Everest and Peng, who were still racing one another along the stone pathway.

"Hey, you guys! Wait right there!" Jin called out. The two didn't listen and kept on running ahead of everyone else.

"They're not going to listen you, obviously. You've pretty much given them a reason not to, killjoy" Chloe said.

"Well, I mean... can't Max use her telepathic bond or whatever it is she has with that thing to make him listen!?" Jin asked in an argumentative tone of voice.

"I would, but you forgot to say "Please". So, nope" the brunette said while still keeping her eyes focused on what was in front of her and continued to follow the younger boy and her temporary son. She then stopped when she saw how beautiful the view was, and let out a smile as she took her Polaroid out again and took another photo once she found the perfect angle to take the photo from. After the photo was taken, she shook it and placed it in her bag with the others along with her camera. She then looked to see Peng and Everest playing with some dandelions growing on the side of the cliff. Peng then picked one out of the ground and held it up to Everest.

"Everest, look. Make a wish" Peng encouraged while holding it up close to the young Yeti's face. Everest then took a bite and swallowed the dandelion whole. Max laughed at how naive Everest was as well as the very moment he ate what was meant to make a wish on. Seeing that reminded Max of a YouTube video she saw where a dog did the exact same thing. Peng just shook his head in annoyance and spoke back to Everest.

"No, no. They're not for eating. They're for wishing" the nine-year-old said before he picked another one from the ground. Chloe, Yi, and Jin had just caught up and saw what Peng was about to do.

"What's going on here?" Chloe asked.

"Peng's showing Everest how to make a wish on a dandelion" the brunette replied.

"I wish I was a basketball superstar" Peng said before he blew on the small plant and made the tiny white fuzzies fly all the way up into the air and get caught in the gentle breezes that flowed across the mountains. Peng then began calling out into the mountains, his voice echoing off the mountain walls.

"Starting in the championship game, the mighty Peng!" he shouted. Chloe smiled and then joined in.

"But what's this! Longtime championship title holder Chloe Price makes her way to the court! Joining the mighty Peng on the court!" exclaimed the blue-haired girl. Peng smiled at how Chloe was taking part in his make-believe game and then continued.

"They make their way to the court. Take every last member of the opposing team down" Chloe said.

"And then, Peng makes the basket! That was one amazing dunk!" Peng cheered.

"And he's won the championship! What a way to end the season, folks!" Chloe concluded before the two of them laughed out loud before they heard a loud whirring noise. Everyone looked to the edge of the cliff and saw a black done with a grill on the front that glowed blue with LED lights underneath the grill vents.

"Wait a minute... is that... a drone?" Max asked in confusion as she stared at it. Peng yelped at the drone's sudden appearance and fell back into Everest's arms, which allowed the young boy a soft landing. The drone began making a beeping noise and the blue LED lights in the vents began to turn red instead of blue. Four more drones emerged from below and surrounded the six of them.

"Dammit! They found us!" Chloe said.

"Million bucks says these things belong to Burnish" Max said as she clenched her fist, getting ready to pause time or do a focused rewind on these drones to ensure a safe escape.

"You feeling okay to use your powers or do you still feel woozy from yesterday?" Yi asked. Max nodded in reply before she spoke.

"I'm fine. I should be okay to use them on these things" Max said as she stood her ground. Chloe then took something out of one of the inner pockets of her leather jacket to reveal the gun she stole from one of the armed guards when she and Max broke into the Burnish compound to rescue Everest.

"You're not doing this alone, Max. I got your back" she said as she loaded the gun and pointed it at one of the drones. The weapon was a silver-painted Glock 19 gen 5 and her eyes were locked on the enemy.

"I just hope you remember our little shooting date back at the junkyard" said Max in worry.

"Hella yeah, I do. I'll blast every last one of these clankers out of the damn sky" Chloe replied as she didn't take her eyes off the drone, trigger finger itching to shoot one of them down.

"Wish we had a way to get out of here though. Those things have us surrounded" Yi said. Max knew she was right, even if she could get them out of this situation using her powers, and if Chloe could shoot one of them down easily without wasting any bullets, Burnish would still keep following them. Everest then saw Yi had a dandelion in her hand that she picked out of the ground earlier and then got an idea. Everest began humming and the blue aura began to surround his body once again. The aura also spread to the dandelion, and the small plant began to grow in size until it was as tall as a pine tree.

"What is that!?" Jin asked in surprise. When Max saw it began to float through the wind, allowing the breeze to guide it, she knew what it was.

"I'll tell you what it is, our ticket out of here. Hop on, guys!" Max said as she jumped onto the stalk of the large dandelion, Chloe jumped onto it next and then Yi jumped on despite Jin's warnings not to. Everest then grabbed Peng and then began chasing after the dandelion.

"No, Peng! Get down from there right now! Hey, Peng!" Jin called out after them as he ran. Everest then jumped off the stone guard rails and grabbed onto the stalk.

"Welcome to air dandelion ladies and gentlemen. Get ready for a bumpy ride!" Chloe said. Jin kept on chasing after them, running up the stairs while Burnish's drones kept on following them. Chloe then held her gun at the drones once again and tried to get a clean shot, but the moving of the dandelion made it hard to fire the bullet.

"I can't fire unless we're flying straight" Chloe said to the others while still having her gun pointed out at the drones.

"Jin! Just jump!" Max called out.

"Jump!" Yi and Peng said in unison.

"No, get down from there! Give me your hand!" Jin said. Just as he grabbed Peng's hand, he was stopped by the stone guard rails. Max, Yi, Everest, Chloe, and Peng gasped at this.

"Meet me at that village by the river!" Jin called out.

"We'll be there! Just stay safe, alright!?" Max shouted back to Jin as they were flying further and further away from where Jin was. Everyone then stared out to see they were flying over the Yellow Mountains, the sun shining brightly above the veil of clouds that masked the ground below them. Max couldn't believe what she was seeing, she wanted to take a Polaroid of where they were right now, but was too stunned with fascination as her eyes were fixed on the beautiful sight before them. They almost crashed into a mountain, but Everest pushed them out of the way before they got a chance to hit it.

"Uh oh" said Peng as he looked behind him. Everybody else turned and saw four of the five drones from earlier were gaining on them.

"Don't these damn things ever just take a hint!?" Chloe asked.

"Apparently not" Max said as she held out her right hand and turned it to the left, freezing the first drone in time. Chloe then pointed her gun at the frozen drone and pulled the trigger. The drone exploded in mid-air and the parts began falling down to the ground.

"Nice shot, Captain Bluebeard!" said Max.

"Thanks, Long-Max Silver. Mind freezing another one?" Chloe asked before she pointed the gun at the drones again. Max held up her hand again, but one of the drones flew right past her, and two of the drone's propeller-blades left two cuts on the back of Max's hand. Max screamed in pain before she looked at the back of her hand to see the two cuts were deep enough to draw blood. Everest saw this and gasped, his mama was in pain and seriously hurt.

"Max!" Chloe shouted in worry for her injured girlfriend. She then got really mad and fired three bullets at the drones. One of them only grazed the first, but the other two destroyed the second drone.

"Guys, that drone that injured Max is coming back around!" Yi said, pointing out in front of them. The drone flew through the top of the dandelion, but all it did was destroy it and send many white fuzzies flying from the top and crashing into the other drone, making it crash and fall down below.

"Yeah! Take that drones!" Peng said, talking smack to their fallen enemies. Yi chuckled before looking back down to see Max still bleeding at the hand from when the drone struck her.

"You okay, Max?" asked Yi in concern.

"I'll be okay, just a little scratch" Max said before hissing in pain. Everest looked worried for his surrogate mother and her injured hand. Chloe saw how worried the Yeti looked and began to whisper some words of comfort to him.

"Hey, don't worry about your mama, okay? She's a tough girl, trust me, I know. She'll be okay" said the blue-haired girl.

"Really, Auntie Chloe?" a voice said in Chloe's head. She gasped when she heard that voice in her head. She didn't know why or how, but now Everest had deemed her worthy of a telepathic link much like the one she had with Max. Instead of exclaiming Everest had just spoken to her in her thoughts, she just smiled and did a finger gesture over her heart, tracing an X over it.

"Cross my heart, big buy" Chloe said in her mind so Everest could hear it.

"Wait, where are we going?" Yi asked out loud, catching Everest and Chloe's attention. Max had no idea where the flow of the wind was taking them, but she did know when they landed they would need to re-plan their route to the Himalayas on the map. Everyone just shouted and yelled in excitement as they kept on flying through the sky to their unknown landing space.

* * *

**Yellow Mountains, Ground Level**

Jin had just been captured by the one drone who had stayed behind while the others went off to chase Max, Chloe and everybody else. Now, he was facing Mr. Burnish and Dr. Emily Zara. Jin was beyond furious, he remembered everything Chloe had told her about Zara, and how she stalked Rachel and attempted to break into Chloe's house.

"I hope you're not hurt. Let me introduce myself" said Dr. Zara in a kind and gentle tone of voice while Jin backed away slowly from her.

"I know who you are. Doctor Emily Zara, zoologist, Blackwell Academy drop-out, stalker, and sadist!" Jin said while the redheaded woman continued to come closer to him. Zara looked offended and scoffed at Jin's comments.

"These accusations! You best learn some respect young man" she scolded.

"Last I checked, you're the bad guys. And bad guys don't get any respect, especially Rachel Amber's number one psycho fan-girl" Jin retorted. Zara's eyes went wide in surprise when Jin said that name. She began to feel her blood boiling at the mention of Rachel Amber, the only girl she felt affection for and felt threatened by Chloe Price. But she couldn't drop the act in front of Burnish, she just took a deep breath and continued to play calm.

"Bad? Listen, you've got this all wrong. That wild beast is unpredictable, even dangerous. We were trying to rescue your friends when the Yeti kidnapped her" Zara said, trying to make up an alibi to make Jin believe her. But the young man wasn't buying into her lies one bit.

"Cut the crap lady, Chloe told me everything about you! You're not British, you're from Portland!" Jin exclaimed. Now, she felt like she needed to teach him a lesson. Dr. Zara then cleared her voice and turned to Mr. Burnish.

"Mr. Burnish? How about you and everybody else set up camp for the night while I have a talk with our guest?" she suggested.

"Very well, I'll leave him to you. Come on everybody!" Mr. Burnish said as he signaled all his guards and trucks to follow him while Zara stayed behind. Once they were alone, Zara took off her glasses and tucked them into the pocket of her brown trench-coat. Jin then felt a fist collide with his right cheek, forcing him to the ground before he felt a few kicks to his stomach and a knee to his chest.

"Who told you?" Zara whispered in an American voice instead of the faux-British voice she had been using.

"Chloe Price. You're just jealous that (cough) Rachel chose her over you!" Jin said while gasping and coughing for air. Zara then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and then gave Jin an elbow to his eye, creating a bruise around it.

"I was more deserving of Rachel Amber than that blue-haired punk ever was! I was outraged when I got put on academic probation at Blackwell Academy all because of my affections for her. You have no right to say her name you little brat!" said Zara before head-butting Jin in the face and forcing him back to the ground.

"Max and Chloe are gonna get him home. When they get back, you're gonna be sorry" Jin said before he spit some blood onto the dirt. Zara then kicked him in the jaw, which sent him onto his back before Zara pulled out her Samsung phone and showed Jin the drone footage of Max using her powers to stop the drone in time, as well as the footage from Shanghai during their escape from the city.

"Now, you're going to tell me everything I want to know. Including where they're going, and more importantly... how did the other girl did those things" Zara hissed threateningly through her teeth at Jin, who gulped in fear before he remembered everything Max and Chloe had told him.

"No. Do whatever you want, but I'm not saying anything! Not about where they're going, not even about Max's powers" said Jin before he noticed the leading member of Burnish's security squad came up behind Zara.

"Take him to my trailer for interrogation. He says he's refusing to tell us what we want to know" she said. The man only nodded before grabbing Jin by both his arms and carried him off to a large black truck that contained a miniature trailer. Zara followed behind them, giving a sadistic smile as she entered the trailer with them and shut the door behind her, locking it after she did so.

* * *

**A/N: Whew! What an update am I right? The journey finally continued, and Jin got himself captured by Rachel Amber's former stalker, Dr. Zara who appears to have taken interest in Max's powers. But what does she want that information for? It certainly can't be good right? More will come in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	15. Departure: Part 5

**A/N: Well hey there everybody! Looks like we've finally reached the end of Episode Three: Departure! And Episode Four will be upon all of us very soon. I just want to take a moment to say how much I appreciate all of you that stuck with this story and continued to experience Max and Chloe's journey with them. After this update, this story will have two episodes left before it's conclusion and what I got planned for Episode Four will be sure to get all of you hyped up for more. Now, let's conclude Episode Three: Departure, Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_The group continue their journey as they start to scale the Yellow Mountains to get to their next destination, a small village along the shore of the Yangtze River, where Jin would hopefully find a boat to take him and Peng back to Shanghai, and Max and Chloe would find a boat to help take themselves, Yi, and Everest up the river to get closer to the Himalayas. While taking a short break from their long hike, Burnish and Zara ambush them with a squadron of drones. Everest helps them escape by using his powers to make a dandelion grow to a much more gigantic size to fly past the mountains, leaving Jin behind to be captured and tortured by Dr. Zara whom has taken a great interest in Max's power to rewind and alter time. During a brief battle in the sky with Burnish's drones, Max's hand is injured by two propellers of one of the enemy drones just as she was about to use her powers to help take another one out of the sky. Chloe has also discovered she can communicate with Everest in her thoughts as well, realizing she had earned a telepathic bond similar to the one he had with Max. Now, the two continue to fly to an unknown destination where they hope to change their route on the map to the Himalayas..._

* * *

**The Gobi Desert. 12:23 PM**

The large dandelion carrying the Yeti and four humans began to get much closer to the ground. It was starting to come down at much faster pace than everybody was anticipating, almost like a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere. Yi spotted a family of four tortoises who were about to eat on a much smaller dandelion that was growing out from the sand in the middle of the desert, making her eyes go wide before she called out to the others.

"Brace yourselves!" said Yi out loud. Max, Chloe, Everest, and Peng clung to the gigantic shoot as tightly as they could before crashing down into the sand. Everest let go at the last minute, causing him to make the ground shake and cover the tortoises in sand, as well as destroy the smaller dandelion. Chloe groaned in pain as she stood up from the sandy ground. The sound of Max hissing caused her to turn her head behind her to see Max gripping the hand that got sliced by the drone from earlier tightly.

"Oh my God. Max, your hand! I forgot about that!" said Chloe as she ran over to help her girlfriend. Everest was now lying on his back and let out a gruff-sounding "Whew" in relief.

"Everest!" the young Yeti heard. It was Peng's voice, he looked up to see where Peng was, but he couldn't see him. He then lifted his left leg in the air, thinking the human boy was hiding underneath it. Everest then sat up and began sitting on his butt before he heard Peng's voice call out to him again.

"No, over here!" he said. Everest then lifted his right leg up into the air, picking it up by the middle toe and standing up while balancing on his left foot. He then grunted and turned around, allowing his right foot to be set down on the ground before he felt something clinging to his fuzzy white backside.

"OOF!" said Peng's voice before Everest turned around to see Peng lying down in the sand. The display of childish shenanigans between the two of them was enough to make Yi laugh. Max's groaning in pain caught all of their attention though, making them turn to see Chloe try to treat the brunette girl's cut hand.

"Max!" Yi shouted as she ran over to check out her hand, Everest and Peng followed behind her. All of them had worried looks on their faces, but Everest was the most worried.

"Mama?" asked Everest in Max's thoughts.

"I'm okay, honey. Mama's just got a small scratch" said Max in her mind before she hissed at another surge of pain flowing throughout her hand, which made Everest know that Max was NOT okay, despite what his surrogate mother had told him.

"Peng! Look inside Max's bag there should be a water bottle or two in there. Bring one to me, we gotta clean this wound before it gets Hella infected" Chloe instructed. Peng looked over by where the large dandelion that had previously been carrying them was crashed, and saw Max's camera bag lying next to it. He grabbed the bag, ran back over to where the others were, and took a bottle of water out, handing it to Chloe.

"Alright, this is gonna sting, Max" said the blue-haired girl as she unscrewed the lid from the top of the bottle and poured it onto injured hand. The feeling of the cold water pouring down onto her wound felt good, but at the same time made her feel more pain, making her scream. Everest could feel tears getting ready to come down, he didn't like seeing his "Mama" hurt or sad. But after staring down at the wounded Max, he got an idea.

"Let me help her" Everest said inside Chloe's head. Chloe looked behind her to see Everest, acknowledging that she had indeed heard what he said.

"What are you gonna do?" asked Chloe, not with her voice, but inside her thoughts. Max looked confused, she wondered why Chloe and Everest were just staring at each other not saying a word, unaware that Chloe had been granted a bond too.

"Please, Mama's in pain. Just let me help her, Auntie Chloe! Please!" Everest begged with his thoughts. Chloe looked back down at Max before she faced her temporary nephew again.

"Alright, do it" Chloe said out loud before moving to the side. Max then spoke up.

"Wait, what's going on? Why were you...?" Max said but was interrupted by Chloe.

"Everest formed the same kind of telepathic bond you guys have with me. I can hear his thoughts and he can hear mine, Max... it's incredible" Chloe explained to her. Max then watched as Everest took her injured hand into his gigantic left paw, placing his right paw right above it. Everest began to hum again, and the blue aura began surrounding his paws this time instead of his entire body. Chloe, Yi, and Peng watched in awe while Max just looked surprised. Her hand began to feel cold, and she felt a shiver flow throughout her entire body, something she had never felt before in the Yeti's presence.

"Woah" Max whispered out loud at what she was feeling at this very moment. What she was feeling right now was completely alien to her, she had no idea what Everest was doing to her. After a short while, Everest's humming stopped and the aura disappeared before he took his right paw off the top of her hand and saw that the cut was completely gone, there was no scabs, no scar, not a single trace of the cuts remained on the back of her hand. Max, Chloe, Yi, and Peng gasped in shock at what they just witnessed, to discover Everest also had healing abilities.

"Holy... it's gone" Yi said.

"It's like nothing ever even happened" Chloe said as she got down on one knee and got a closer look at Max's healed hand.

"That's so awesome! I just can't get over the fact that superpowers are actually real! Rewinding time, controlling nature, and now healing powers? Everest could be a member of the Avengers if he wanted to!" said Peng, jumping up and down in excitement like a toddler in a candy store. Max, Chloe, and Everest chuckled and rolled their eyes in unison at Peng's childishness. Max then looked up to face her semi-adopted son with a look of gratitude on her face.

"Thank you, Everest" she gently said out loud before giving him an affectionate scratch behind the ears, which made the Yeti hum happily as well as stomp his foot on the ground. After Max gave him a kiss in between his eyes and above his nose, he stopped the stomping and nuzzled Max with his right cheek. Yi then looked back down at the dandelion stalk before she looked to face Everest herself.

"What you did back there was amazing, Everest. You saved us! And now we're... wait, where are we?" asked Yi. Her sentence had begun with a smile but it faded away at the end of it. Chloe then got an idea, she took out her phone and took a picture of the landscape before she went to the "photos" app to access the picture she had just taken. Since location services were turned on, the picture could tell them where they were based on the location the picture was taken.

"It says we're in the Gobi Desert. That's pretty Hella far from the Yellow Mountains" said Chloe, making Everest nod in agreement.

"So that means we're gonna have to re-plan our route" Max said before she took the map out of her camera bag and then placed it on the ground. Everest, Chloe, Yi, and Peng gathered around to take a look at the map.

"Alright, so this is where we are" said Chloe as she pointed her index finger on the area of the map where the words "Gobi Desert" were in big bold black letters. Yi then pointed to a blue line on the map that looked a great amount of distance away from where they were now.

"And this is the Yangtze River. That's at least one thousand, five hundred and thirty four kilometers away from where we're at right now" said Yi. Max then reached into her bag and this time pulled out a blue sharpie pen and handed it to Yi, who took the cap off and began to draw on the map's surface.

"Alright, since we're probably around this area, we're going to have to start walking South if we're going to get to the River and meet up with Jin" Yi said as she stopped drawing once she connected the blue line with the red line from earlier she had drawn while they were still on the boat.

"Good idea. The route to our previous route has been declared" Max said before she took off her gray hoodie and tied it around her waist by the sleeves.

"Jeebus it is so effing hot out here" Max said out loud before Chloe took off her beanie and jacket before tying it across her waist just like Max did. Everyone then saw how sad Peng was looking as he was staring out to the sky.

"Peng? You okay little buddy?" Chloe asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder for comfort.

"Not really. We're just so far away from Jin right now and I'm worried" Peng admitted to his older blue-haired friend.

"Yeah well, that's pretty boy's fault, not ours" Chloe said. Max gave her a scolding glare at what she just told him.

"Chloe's right, Max. Jin's the one at fault for not being here right now. He should have jumped, I mean, why doesn't he ever just jump?" Yi said in defense of what Chloe had said earlier.

"He did, he jumped on that boat back in the city. Which is what got him on this trip in the first place" Peng pointed out.

"Yeah, that's because he was worried about you. You're his family" Yi said in response to the younger boy. Max nodded in agreement before she looked over to Everest who had picked up three of the four tortoises from before into his large paws and held them out to Max. The little reptiles popped their heads out their shells and made adorable squeak-like noises at Max, which surprised Everest so much he tossed them up into the air and caught them before they hit the ground.

"Hey, Everest? Hold those little tortoises up to me again, please?" Max politely asked out loud. Everest nodded in compliance and did as asked. She then took out her Polaroid and backed up slightly before looking through the viewfinder and took the picture. After Max took the freshly printed picture out the camera, she shook it up and placed it in her bag alongside her camera. Peng then spoke up again after Max's little photo shoot with Everest ended.

"Yi, he thinks of you as family too" he said. This statement only confused Yi.

"Wait, wh-what?" Yi asked out loud. Peng then looked down at the one turtle that wasn't resting in Everest's paws and picked it up before facing Max, Chloe, and Everest.

"Hey guys, Jin said Yi was like his little sister when they were kids" Peng said.

"Really? That's so sweet" Max replied.

"Yeah. She was always doing something crazy that would get her into trouble. So, he had to... watch out for her" Peng said before placing the turtle in his hands onto Everest's paw, where it nuzzled cheeks with it's sibling.

"And, he still does" Peng concluded before looking over to face Yi. Max, Chloe, and Everest looked at her the exact same time Peng did. Yi was about to say something but she struggled to put the words together. After a short while, she stopped trying to put together her words and said something else in it's place.

"I uh... I think we should get going" she said.

"Good idea. If we're going to see Jin at that village, we need to keep on moving" Chloe said in agreement before looking over to Max.

"Lead the way?" the blue-haired girl asked. Max nodded with a small smile on her face.

"Gladly" said Max before she began walking ahead of all the others, but instructed Everest to stay close to her, like a real mother would instruct to her child whenever they were walking out in a store or in public so that they wouldn't get lost. Peng hopped onto Everest's back to ride on, Chloe walked on Everest's left, and Yi waked right behind the young Yeti.

* * *

**The Yellow Mountains, Ground Level. 8:53 PM**

Jin was now sobbing and coughing in agonizing pain. The bruise surrounding his eye grew darker and underneath his clothes were more bruises from the severe beatings he had just taken from both Dr. Zara and the Goon Leader. Jin could barely even do anything to fight back, as his hands were tied in front of him with zip-ties.

"N-No more" Jin whimpered as he gazed at Zara standing right above him with a police baton in her hand.

"You brought this on yourself, you little brat. You decide not to say anything for hours about where your friends are taking the Yeti, as well as one of your friends' powers" said Zara in an American voice, dropping the British accent while the head goon smiled down at Jin with his arms crossed and back against the wall.

"You can go to Hell (cough) for what you did to Everest... and to Rachel" said Jin while groaning in pain. Zara then swung her arm that carried the police baton and whacked it across Jin's face, forcing him back onto the ground as he tried to sit up.

"He's a tough cookie, doctor. I'm impressed, all these continuous hours of torture and he still hasn't cracked" the head goon said to her.

"I couldn't agree more. But perhaps maybe we should try our most reliable torture tool?" Zara said in a suggestive tone, making the leading crony chuckle and nod in agreement before he opened up a metal locker close to the exit-door and handed it to her. She opened it up and took out what looked like a cattle-prod, but the tool glowed orange and had a large battery at the very bottom of it's hilt with a yellow lightning bolt painted on the side.

"You know, I've never used this on a human before. You, my dear boy... have the honor of being the very first I use it on" Zara said before she flipped a red switch on the handle and activated the weapon. Yellow and orange bolts of electricity came from the tip and Zara chuckled as she stared into the flowing current coming from the weapon itself. Jin then got scared and then shouted at the top of his lungs.

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! I'LL TELL! THEY'RE GOING TO A SMALL VILLAGE BY THE YANGTZE RIVER!" Jin screamed, now starting to let tears fall from his eyes from how scared he was of the pain he would have received had he not decided to talk. Zara smiled in satisfaction before turning the tool off and placed it back inside the case. The redheaded woman looked down to face Jin at his eye-level.

"And, the girl?" Zara asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Her name is Max Caulfield. She and her girlfriend, Chloe Price came to China on Vacation. Max was receiving visions from the Yeti inside her head, he chose her to take him back home to Mt. Everest in the Himalayas! She can rewind time, I've seen it! She has the power to control time itself, she can pause and rewind people and non-living objects in time!" Jin said as he winced his eyes shut. Zara then stood back up and turned to the head goon.

"Looks like we're going to be netting TWO big prizes. The Yeti, and Caulfield" said Zara. The lead guard looked confused and spoke up.

"Wait, why do we want her?" he asked. Zara groaned in annoyance before she slapped him across the face.

"Did you not see what she can do? Imagine it, we cut her open, find out where her power comes from, and then there's a possibility we may be able to weaponize it! We can distribute it as injections to the highest bidder who's willing to pay the highest. They'll be the first nation or nations in the world to have soldiers who can rewind and pause time" Zara said before she put her glasses back on and walked out of the trailer with the head goon following closely behind her.

"W-What have I done?" Jin sobbed to himself while still lying on the floor. He began to regret how he behaved towards Yi, Chloe, Max, Peng, and Everest. He was also wishing he didn't say anything, but he didn't have any choice, he only wanted the pain to stop. Jin then flinched when he heard the door open up again, he was worried Zara was going to hurt him again for more information, but he was wrong. It was an armed guard without his mask, and he came in with a pair of pliers.

"Are you alright?" He asked. Jin didn't reply, he only shook his head to tell him he was not okay. The guard then took the pliers and then cut the zip-ties that held Jin's hands together. Once his hands were free, Jin was helped back up to his feet by the guard.

"Listen to me, my name is Dave. I eavesdropped on the whole interrogation, I wanna help you" Dave said out loud before handing Jin his phone, which Zara had taken from him five minutes into the torturous interrogation that lasted for hours.

"B-But why?" asked Jin, wondering why one of Burnish and Zara's own employees would turn on his employers like this.

"Because Rachel Amber and Chloe Price were my friends. We attended Blackwell together before that storm destroyed Arcadia Bay, Rachel and I were in theater together. Besides, I didn't join Burnish's private army to hurt innocent people" said Dave before he lead Jin outside the trailer and handed him a large black duffel bag.

"That's got all the guns, and ammunition you'll need to help fight Zara and help get the Yeti back home" said Dave.

"I don't understand. Why are you giving me these weapons?" asked Jin, still confused as to why Dave was doing all of this.

"Because I've listened in Zara's conversations with my boss, the head of security. She's planning on betraying him and killing the Yeti for medical research, or so she says. I know for a fact she just wants another subject for her torture. She's never going to stop chasing you, none of you are safe as long as she's still secretly pulling Burnish's strings" Dave explained. Jin knew Dave was right, he experienced how dangerous Emily Zara truly was and the threat she posed to Max and Everest. Before Jin could say anything else, Dave snatched his phone and typed something into it before giving it back.

"I just instructed the Map-Quest app to take you to a smaller river that's pretty close to here. Get there, and you'll have to convince someone to lend you a boat. Once you get a boat, go up that stream and you should find yourself at the Yangtze river" Dave instructed. Jin nodded reply, letting him know he understood and gave him a Military-style salute.

"Good luck" Dave said as he gave a salute back at the younger man.

"Thank you. You too" Jin said before running off with the bag of weapons being carried over his shoulder.

* * *

**Fifty Miles Outside the Gobi Desert. 9:12 PM**

Max, Chloe, Everest, Yi, and Peng collapsed down on the ground. Everybody was exhausted, their legs felt as heavy as lead and not a single one of them had the strength to keep on walking another mile.

"I can't feel my feet" Peng said exhausted. Everest let out a loud groan as he transmitted a message into Max and Chloe's heads.

"Mama? Auntie Chloe? My legs hurt" Everest said using both telepathic links. Max turned her head to face the Yeti with a sympathetic smile on her face.

"I know, sweetie. My legs hurt too" said Max in her thoughts.

"I feel like my legs have been encased in concrete" Chloe said out loud while staring up at the night sky.

"You can say that again" Yi said before groaning in annoyance, placing her hands over her face.

"At least we're actually out of the Gobi Desert, right? Now we just have to keep on walking until we actually find the river" Max piped in, too exhausted to not turn her head to face anyone while she was talking and kept her eyes on the night sky. Yi then let out a loud groan before she sat up, everybody sat up as well, eyes focused on her. Yi looked down, like she was about to give up all hope.

"Ugh, what was I thinking? We are completely lost! We're probably like a bagillion miles away from the Gobi Desert, Everest is nowhere near his mountain, and... given everything you've told me about that psychopath, Zara... Jin could be in serious trouble right now. And, it's all my fault" Yi said before she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face into her arms. Everest gave a sad hum before placing his large paw on Yi's head, giving it a comforting pat.

"Jin said this trip was a crazy idea. And I don't know, maybe..." Yi continued but Max grabbed her wrist gently and stopped her from finishing her sentence.

"Maybe what? He was right? No, he wasn't" Max told her. Yi looked confused a bit, but Max continued.

"You chose to be here with us, not Jin. Everest chose me to help him to get home, not Jin. Destiny and fate have bigger plans in store for each and every one of us, Yi. Jin's not the one who's in control, we are. And I'm glad you're here with us, you're loyal and always willing to help out in any way you can. If Jin failed to see that about you... he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's the real crazy one, not you" Max told her. Yi smiled at Max's words before she launched herself forward to give the brunette a hug, which took Max by surprise, but she happily returned the hug. Everest was smiling at the sight of the two girls hugging but he felt something launch itself right into his face, causing him to yelp and fall backwards onto the ground.

"Hehehehehe" Chloe and Peng chuckled together when they saw it happen. Everest then stood up and saw that the mysterious object that hit him was a Koi Fish. Max and Yi stopped hugging and looked to see the fish hopping on the ground back into a small stream that was close to where they sat. Everest backed away slightly in fear, having no idea if the fish was going to hurt him. Yi then stood up and patted Everest on his shoulder to reassure him he had nothing to be afraid of.

"It's okay, Everest. It's just a Koi fish, that's all" she said. Max and Chloe stood up to see many more Koi fish were hopping up the stream over tiny little waterfalls in the middle of the stream that came up every few inches they swam up it. Peng spoke up, confused about why he was seeing the fish swim the opposite direction of where the water was flowing.

"Why are they swimming against the current?" the young boy asked.

"Because they're trying to get back home. Just like how we're trying to get Everest back home" Max told him. Everybody's eyes were now on Everest as they saw him pick a Koi fish out of the stream and hold it up to his face. The Yeti let out a "oooh" as he looked down at it into it's tiny black bead-like eyes. Everest also began mimicking the fish's mouth movements before it slipped out of his paws and slap him across the face with it's tail before it went back down into the water.

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't mess with them, buddy" Chloe said after the fish fell back into the stream.

"Do you think he'll make it?" Peng asked, noticing it was behind all the other Koi fish who were swimming alongside it.

"I'm sure he will. Or at least, he's gonna try" Chloe answered.

"You know, these fish are actually the symbol of perseverance?" asked Yi.

"What?" asked Peng, confused once more. Max this time chuckled before she was about to speak up to answer his question. Before she could though, she noticed Everest picking up another Koi as it flew out the water. She placed his hand on his paw and lowered it down just as he was about to put it in his mouth. Max then took the fish gently out of Everest's paw before placing it back in the water.

"It means that, no matter how rough things get... you just, keep trying. Regardless of what difficulties you might face" Max explained. Yi then stood up with a large smile on her face, she looked like she wasn't even tired or exhausted anymore.

"We have to keep going. We have to stay ahead of those psychos right?" asked Yi, determination filled her voice as she talked. Max nodded in reply, and so did Chloe as small smiles formed on their faces as well.

**(Start Playing 'Red' by Mt. Wolf as you read this next part of the chapter until it says to stop)**

"You're right. We still have a long way to go. And as long as those guys are still following us, we can't stop" Max said before she looked up the stream. Everybody then began to walk up alongside the water before they heard the sound of splashing water and turned their heads to see Everest with a Koi fish halfway inside his large mouth.

"Everest, please put the fish back" Max politely said using her thoughts.

"Yes, mama" Everest said before he spit it back out into the stream and then began running ahead of the others. Yi and Peng playfully chased after the young Yeti, leaving Chloe to walk alongside her. As the two girlfriends began to walk together, Chloe spoke up.

"You really do love him, don't you?" asked Chloe. Max just looked to the blue-haired girl, her small smile still present on her face.

"Is it that obvious?" asked Max.

"I don't really blame you, Mad-Max. I am too, I'm starting to think he's ACTUALLY my nephew" Chloe told her. Max's smile faded away before she spoke.

"I know we're supposed to be taking him home, Chloe, but..." Max paused.

"But what?" Chloe asked.

"But... I dunno. I just can't bare to let him go, not after everything we've been though. I find myself about to cry about every time I think about letting him go" Max said, tears threatened to lead down the edges of her eyes at the thought of letting her little Everest go.

"That's the hardest hard about being a parent, Caulfield. Letting your kids go" Chloe replied.

"I love him so much, Chloe. It scares me to think about just... letting him go back when I've grown so attached" said Max. She then felt Chloe place her left arm on her shoulder and pulled her close.

"Don't worry, Max. When the time comes... I'll help you get though it. You're a good mom, and I know even after we get to the Himalayas, that little Yeti's NEVER gonna forget you, and everything you've ever done for him" she told her. Max then rested her head on Chloe's shoulder as they walked and continued to try and catch up with the others.

"Thanks, Chloe" she whispered. The two remained silent as they walked, not needing to say anything else, just enjoying the silence, as well as one another's company.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

**-This Action Will Have Consequences-**

**End of Episode Three: Departure**

* * *

**A/N: At long last, Episode Three is finally finished! Looks like Max is growing so attached she doesn't wanna let Everest go. It's going to be hard for her when the time comes. Next month, Episode Four: Hostilities will be posted. But for now, I'm happy you enjoyed Episode Three. Please review, thanks!**


	16. Hostiles: Part 1

**A/N: Welcome back everybody! I'm so happy to announce that Life is Abominable Episode Four: Hostiles is ready for posting! And yes, I changed the episode title because I figure it sounded a lot better and shorter than Hostilities. I could tell based on the last episode you were excited and were wanting to see what would happen to Max, Chloe, Everest, Yi, Peng, and Jin since the events of Episode Three: Departure. So, let's start part one now. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Jin had been tortured and interrogated by Dr. Emily Zara until he gave them the information she was wanting from him concerning where Max, Chloe, and the others were taking Everest. Jin also overheard a plan by Zara to capture Max and weaponize her time powers to get rich. He was then set free by Dave, a member of Burnish's goon squad who knew Rachel and Chloe back during their Blackwell Academy days. Max, Chloe, Everest, Yi, and Peng landed in the Gobi Desert, and Everest healed Max's wound that Burnish's drones had given her during their brief battle in the sky in the mountains. While continuing their path to the Dahe Village, Max admits to Chloe she doesn't want to let Everest go and that she is really starting to see the young yeti as her own child. Chloe reassured Max she'd be there to figure everything out when the time comes to finally let Everest go back to his family..._

* * *

Max woke up gasping, she found herself back on the mountain from her previous vision from when she passed out after the blueberry avalanche. She stood up in the middle of the snowy terrain to see everything was the same as before, only for one difference, there were giant pools of blood staining the snow, and each one was in the shape of gigantic bodies lying dead on the ground. Max was now even more scared and confused than she was the last time, she didn't understand what any of this meant.

"What happened? Where did all this blood come from?" Max asked herself out loud as she couldn't do anything except stare at the bloody body-prints in horror.

_"When the time comes, you will have to make one last choice" _the loud booming voice from before said in Max's thoughts. Hearing the voice again caused Max to jump where she stood and began looking around her. There was no gigantic beast, nor was there anybody around for miles, not even the spirit deer.

"I don't understand! What do you mean? What choice!?" Max screamed out into the distance, hoping the voice from before would say something.

"The most important choice you'll ever have to make" a new voice said. Max looked behind her to see a nineteen year old girl standing where the gigantic silhouette stood before. She had beautiful snowy white skin, blonde hair, and hazel eyes that stared down at Max as a smile formed on her face. Her clothes consisted of a blue flannel that was torn at the right shoulder, a blank brick red tee-shirt, black skinny jeans that were torn at the knees, and black converse high-tops. Standing next to her was the spirit deer. Max recognized her from the various Missing Persons posters that were pinned up all over Blackwell Academy. It was Rachel Amber, Chloe's closest friend and previous girlfriend.

"Rachel?" Max whispered loudly. Rachel smiled and began to walk towards her, the spirit deer walked alongside her as she continued to approach Max. She stopped once she was right in front of her, Rachel smiled and placed her right hand on Max's shoulder.

"I told you I'd be seeing you real soon. Just didn't think it would take this long" Rachel said to Max in an awkward tone of voice. Max knew she was referring to the text message she was sent by Rachel in her nightmare she had while she was unconscious and Chloe was carrying her to the lighthouse while the storm was approaching Arcadia Bay.

"Rachel, why am I having these visions? What is all this?" Max said as she looked to her right to see another bloodstain the shape of a dead body appear in the snow just right next to both her and Rachel. Rachel looked at the bloodstain for a few seconds before looking back at Max and speaking again.

"You're on the right path, Max. You have to keep going" she said, not even bothering to answer Max's questions.

"What? No, that doesn't answer what I just asked. And... why are you even here? We got both Nathan and Jefferson, we avenged your murder" Max told her. Rachel's smile disappeared as she shook her head and let out a light chuckle.

"No, you didn't. There's still one more" she said in a serious voice this time. Max then noticed Rachel was looking at something that was standing behind her, so she turned around and she couldn't believe what she was seeing right now. Nathan Prescott was standing right behind them, five feet away in the middle of the blizzard. His face was also covered in bruises, which looked the very same ones Warren Graham had given him while beating him up in the Blackwell boy's dorms.

"N-Nathan? But... you're dead" Max said. Nathan said nothing and pulled out a square slate of cardboard from behind his back and held it up to his chest. On the slate were four words written in bright red paint in large letters. "You Talk, You Die" it read. Nathan then smiled and gave a sadistic sounding chuckle and made a cut-throat gesture with his thumb being dragged across his throat.

"Max" Rachel said, causing Max to turn her head back around. The sky was now dark with storm clouds, and orange lightning emitted from said clouds. The snow that once fell from the sky was now replaced with ashes that looked like they came from a raging wildfire.

"Max! Max! Max! Max! Max!" Rachel kept on repeating. The more she said it, the more her voice changed, now it sounded like Chloe's voice was coming out of Rachel's mouth.

* * *

**On Board A Cargo Train closely approaching the Yangtze River. 9:22 AM**

"Max!" Chloe shouted. Max woke up gasping and she looked absolutely terrified. She looked around her to see where they currently were, and she was relieved to see it wasn't on the mountain with Rachel Amber and Nathan Prescott. She then began to remember they were able to jump onto this train without being noticed by the conductors or anybody else working on board.

"Are you okay? You overslept for a while now and we were staring to get concerned" Yi asked, a look of worry on her face was visible to the brunette.

"I'm alright, just had a really long unpleasant dream is all" Max said as she sat up and leaned against a tall stack of wooden crates. Everest then walked up to Max and sat down next to her.

"Are you sure you're okay, mama?" Everest asked in Max's thoughts.

"I told you, I'm fine. It's my job to worry about you, Everest, not the other way around" Max replied using her telepathic link with the young Yeti. She then gave a small smile and gave Everest a gentle and loving scratch underneath his fuzzy chin, which made him smile and hum happily at the attention he was getting. While she kept on scratching her surrogate son's chin, she turned to face Chloe and Yi.

"How far are we to the Yangtze River?" she asked.

"Not too far. We can see the village we're supposed to meet Jin at over the horizon" Chloe replied.

"How long before we have to jump off the train?" asked Max.

"Best guess, I'd say about fifteen minutes. We're still pretty far away though" Yi answered. Max then reached into her camera bag and took out her earbuds and connected them to her phone before placing one in her left ear and then held up the other one to Everest, who just looked confused.

"Wanna listen to some music with me?" Max asked out loud. Everest still wasn't sure what his temporary mother was doing with the earbud though. She let out a small chuckle before she stood up and placed it into his right ear.

"There you go. Now, you'll be able to hear whatever song is playing on my phone" Max told him using her thoughts. She then looked down at her phone and began to look though the music library app. After a short while, Max found a good song and tapped on the screen to select it. Everest gasped and looked around when the song began to play, the sound of "Young" by The Chainsmokers filling his right ear with sound.

"It's okay, Everest. It's just music" Max said calmly, reassuring him this was normal. Max then leaned back against the stack of crates and began gently bobbing her head up and down to the beat of the song. Everest then began sitting against the wall of the train and began bobbing his head too, copying his surrogate mother's actions. Seeing this made Chloe, Yi, and Peng chuckle a little.

"Like mother, like son I guess" said Chloe, not taking her eyes of her nephew or her girlfriend. Yi then turned to Chloe and spoke up.

"You know something, Chloe? I can't seem to figure Everest out" Yi said.

"What do you mean?" asked the blue haired girl, curious as to what the younger teen meant.

"I mean, how does he do all this stuff? He can control nature and heal wounds. This isn't the kind of thing you see on a normal day-to-day basis" Yi explained.

"Maybe it's his gift. Like when you play the violin, or when Max takes pictures with her Polaroid, or when I play basketball. Everest just talks to nature" Peng suggested.

"Okay, now THAT is a gift" Chloe said before she looked to Yi again and spoke.

"And truth be told... I used to think the same thing when Max first proved to me she had her time powers. But sometimes, there are just some mysteries that are just beyond our knowledge" Chloe told her.

"Woah. What you said just now sounded really cool" said Peng, his eyes widened and jaw slightly agape in awe at Chloe's words. Chloe just rolled her eyes and smiled before walking over to the open side-door of the train car and saw the Dahe village getting closer and closer. The time to get off was coming pretty soon, so she'd have to snap Everest and Max out of their moment so they could jump off safely and rendezvous with Jin.

"Max!" Chloe softly called out. It was loud enough to get both the brunette and Yeti's attention.

"We're getting closer to the Dahe village. Time to go" Yi said. Max then turned off the song and walked over to Everest, taking the earbud out of his ear and cramming them into her camera bag.

"We're about to jump off the train, alright? Just follow my lead and be careful. Got it?" Max instructed to Everest, who nodded at what she said. The four of them were now standing on the edge of the box car and kept their eyes fixed onto the village, watching it get even more closer and closer by the second. Once they got close enough, everybody gave a lone nod to one another and then jumped off the edge of the car. All of them landed on their feet without any problem.

"That was pretty easy" Chloe said after jumping.

"Don't jinx it. We still have to find Jin" Max reminded her blue-haired girlfriend.

"She's right. It's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack in such a large crowd of people who live here" Yi said while pointing at the entrance to the village. There were a ton of people walking all over the place, and several stands were set up, selling fruits, vegetables, and various other goods.

"Looks like we've got a farmer's market going on here" said Max, not taking her eyes off the large crowd.

"C'mon, let's get moving" Chloe said, encouraging everybody to start walking with her towards the village. Max, Yi, Peng, and Everest followed suit.

* * *

**Somewhere Miles Outside the Dahe Village. 10:00 AM**

Dave was now on his knees, being whacked in the back by Zara's electric cattle prod. The beating had kept going on and on for forty five minutes now, and there was hardly ever a break from a zap from the prod or a hard whack with a cold metal police baton to somewhere on his body. His hands were also bound behind his back with rope, so he could barely even defend himself.

"Dr. Zara, don't you think this is a little too much?" asked Mr. Burnish.

"Absolutely not. I saw him on the wireless security footage on our trucks help the boy escape and gave him an entire duffel bag full of weapons. That makes these kids even more dangerous" said Zara, justifying her treatment of Dave.

"That wasn't all I included in there you sick prick!" Dave said through his gritted teeth. The redheaded woman got down on one knee and looked him straight in the eye.

"What? What else did you include in there besides half of our entire armory?" Zara asked in a demanding voice.

"Your entire mental health record" Dave replied, smirking as he spoke.

"You what!? That's confidential information!" Zara said before whacking Dave across the face with the prod, which also gave a light zap to his cheek, and leaving a small pink burn-mark below his right eye.

"Every single diagnosis made by four different mental health professionals. Each and every one of them list your sadistic personality disorder, delusions of grandeur, obsessive compulsive disorder, pathological liar. And let's not forget the most important one of all... antisocial personality disorder" Dave said before Zara began stomping on the side of his face with her boot. Mr. Burnish couldn't help but look disturbed as Dave listed every last one of Zara's diagnoses to her.

"Those "Professionals" are trying to tarnish my good name by making me look like a whack-job" Zara said.

"But they're right! You stalked Rachel Amber and tried to torment Chloe Price. And I know something else... you played a part in her disappearance. You don't think I didn't notice? The way she disappeared a month before she was supposed to graduate Blackwell with me?" replied Dave, not regretting that he was outing the psychotic woman out in front of her boss.

"Again, more lies!" said Zara before this time, kicking him in the jaw.

"I know what you did. With Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson's help. Before that storm wiped out Arcadia Bay, you payed to get rid of Rachel. And you used Nathan's family's money to bribe that sicko Jefferson for it" Dave continued before Zara decided she had enough of Dave's talking. She took out a gun and shot him right in the abdomen, which Mr. Burnish was taken aback by, and felt sick the minute he watched Zara pull the trigger. Surprisingly enough, Dave was still alive.

"Be lucky that bullet was just a blank. Next one's going to be real" Zara snarled to Dave before placing the gun back inside her trench-coat pocket and turned to the head goon.

"Take him to the trailer. We'll decide his fate after we secure the Yeti and capture the children" Zara gently ordered. The lead goon only nodded and picked the injured Dave up over his shoulder and carried him over to the same trailer where Jin was kept and tortured the night before. Mr. Burnish stayed quiet and only watched as Zara got back inside the truck that she and him were driving together in, and his eyes remained as wide as two dinner plates. He had just witnessed a side of Dr. Zara he had never seen before, and he did not like this violent and sadistic side of her at all. The older man then snapped his fingers and signaled for one of his goons to come closer.

"We have digital copies of all staff members medical records and criminal histories right?" Mr. Burnish asked.

"That we do sir. You ordered we always have them saved on our main hard drive just in case if we ever lost them" said the goon.

"Alright, do me a favor and look up the mental health record of Emily Zara, criminal record too. Bring them straight to me so I can see if everything Dave said about her just now was true" said Burnish. The goon only nodded and ran off to one of the trailer trucks to go grab his work computer and email the records to his boss so he could read them for himself.

* * *

**Back at the Village**

Max, Chloe, Yi, Peng, and Everest were hiding in an alleyway behind two large red slabs of wood that were large enough to be doors. Max and Yi were peeking their heads out from the sides of each door to keep a lookout for Jin.

"Well, here we are. This is the Dahe Village" Max said out loud.

"Do you see Jin?" Peng asked.

"Yeah, any sign of pretty boy?" Chloe piped in.

"Though that mob? Are you cereal right now?" Yi said. Chloe and Max looked at the Chinese teen in shock.

"What?" Yi asked with a confused look on her face.

"I think your hipster lingo is rubbing off on her, Max" Chloe said, making Max lightly chuckle.

"Hey, she's said "Hella" a few times, and I'm pretty sure she got that from you. So you're just as guilty as I am here" Max said while she still kept her eyes on the crowd, looking for Jin.

"Well, regardless of who's the most guiltiest about my vocabulary right now, we need to be looking for Jin right now" Yi told them. Everest nodded in agreement with her.

"I just hope Zara didn't capture him and make him say anything" Max said as she didn't take her eyes off the crowd.

"Me too, Max. If she did, add it to the list of all the other crimes she's gonna pay for. I still owe that sadist POS a punch to her nose" said Chloe. Her blood was boiling at the thought of Zara hurting anybody else just to get what she wanted, like she did back during her Blackwell days.

"Alright, let's split up. Yi, you can come with me and we'll do some supply shopping while we're looking for Jin" Max suggested.

"Good idea. We're almost out of food and water too, so we may as well buy what we can" said Yi in agreement.

"Chloe, Peng, you stay with Everest and keep a sharp eye out for Jin. Make sure he stays hidden from everybody else, we don't know if Burnish's goons are hiding in plain sight here and we have to be cautious" the brunette said after turning around to face her blue-haired girlfrield, adopted son, and his best friend.

"You got it, but how are we gonna move him around here without anyone noticing him?" Chloe asked. Max then turned to her right and saw a farmer herding four yaks through the streets of the village. He told the yaks to move along before slapping one right on it's rear end and making it move ahead of all the others. Max then looked behind them to see a rusty old bicycle and a gigantic pile of old rope.

"I got an idea. We're gonna give Everest a disguise" she told everyone.

"Peng, grab all that rope and throw it on top of Everest's body. Yi, take the handlebar off that bike and place it on top of his head once Peng finished putting all that rope on him" Max instructed. Yi and Peng nodded and ran off to do their assigned tasks.

"Disguising him as a yak!? Max, you're a mad genius!" Chloe exclaimed before wrapping her arms around the brunette girl and gave her a kiss on the cheek. This made Max blush and place a hand on the cheek that Chloe just kissed. Everest let out a grunt that made it sound like he was saying "Aww" at how his mama and auntie showed affection.

"Well, I'm no Thomas Edison, but... I do have my moments" Max said before turning her head to see Peng had just threw all the rope from the pile on top of Everest's back. Yi then placed the handlebars on his head, and Max had to admit that she was impressed. Everest went from Yeti to yak in a matter of seconds and she could barely tell it was him.

"Good job guys. Now, remember your assigned groups and let's get a move on and try to find Jin before Burnish and Zara find us" Max said before she looked over to Everest and began speaking to him using her telepathy.

"Mama's going to look for Jin with Yi, alright? I want you to stay with Auntie Chloe and Peng until we find him. Do you understand?" she asked. Everest nodded before he began responding using his own telepathic bond with her.

"I understand, mama" said Everest.

"Good boy. We'll be back soon" Max said out loud before giving Everest a kiss in between his eyes before she walked out of the alleyway. Yi followed closely behind her, leaving Chloe and Peng alone with Everest. Yi and Max then wandered all around the farmer's market and saw all the stands that were set up. Various goods were being sold, as well as fruits, vegetables, even clothes and pottery.

"Anything specific you want to buy?" Yi asked.

"Not really, just... anything we can eat, drink, or something you think could be useful to us" Max answered. The two then began to browse around while also looking around them to see if they could find Jin anywhere. So far, no luck in finding the social-media savvy teen, but Max did see a store she really liked. It was small but there was a sign on the top of the building that had the logo for "Polaroid Originals" on the very top, and Max began to smile like a kid who just opened their presents on Christmas Day.

"Hey, Yi? You mind if we look in here?" asked Max after tapping Yi on her shoulder. Yi then saw Max was pointing to the Polaroid Originals store and nodded in reply with a smile. Max then grabbed Yi by the hand and led her right inside the store. The minute they walked in through the door, Max swore she was in heaven. There were packs of film meant for different model cameras hanging on the walls, as well as podiums with shelves on them that carried boxes that contained a vintage Polaroid instant camera. She saw 600 and Spectra models all over, even the new i-Type cameras as well.

"Wow, I didn't know Polaroid was making such a huge comeback" Yi said as she looked all around her.

"I've never been this excited about anything before. It's like... well, like being in a candy store" Max replied. She then turned around to see another camera on a podium, it was an SX-70 Alpha 1 camera.

"No way... Yi, look. It's an SX-70" Max said as she walked up to the podium, her eyes fixed on the camera itself. Yi then let out a tiny chuckle at how it looked.

"It looks like a tiny little accordion" she said. Max rolled her eyes at what her friend just said and then picked the camera up into her hands.

"This is the very first instant camera Polaroid ever released. They made them for only a couple years in the seventies. It's the same camera Ansel Adams and Walker Evans used" Max said with enthusiasm in her voice. Yi looked confused at the last part of her brunette friend's sentence.

"I'm sorry, who're those guys?" asked Yi.

"Oh, right, sorry. They were famous photographers. They're both the reason Polaroid photography is considered a form of art" Max explained to her. Yi could tell Max loved the camera she was holding in her hands from the was she talked about the famous people who've used it as well as all the rich history behind it.

"Why don't you buy it then?" suggested Yi.

"I would but..." Max said, pausing in the middle of her sentence.

"But what?" Yi asked.

"I need to focus on getting Everest home right now. All this will do is just distract me from the task at hand" Max said before her face turned somber and placed the camera right back on the podium it sat on before. Yi then watched as her friend exited the store and went back outside to browse the stands at the farmer's market. She then looked down on the podium shelves and picked up an SX-70 that was still inside it's box and then looked at the back to see the price. She then walked over to the wall that housed all the different types of film and picked six packs of SX-70 film.

"Excuse me, miss?" Yi heard someone say. She turned to her right and saw a man wearing a store uniform with the Polaroid logo on his shirt pocket.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Oh, yes uh... I'm buying all this for my friend" Yi explained.

"That's very generous of you miss, want me to ring you up?" asked the clerk.

"That would be great. Thank you so much" said Yi before she followed the clerk to the checkout counter and placed all the money she had earned from her previous odd jobs on the counter. Once the clerk scanned the bar-codes on the items and counted all of Yi's money, he placed them inside a large plastic bag and handed it to her along with the receipt for everything she bought.

"Thank you so much" Yi gratefully said to the clerk whom had just helped her out and placed the camera and film packs inside her backpack that also carried her violin before exiting the store to rejoin Max in her supply shopping.

* * *

**A/N: Part One is done everybody! Whoot whoot! Every minute they're getting closer to completing their journey. But what exactly is up with Max's vision of Rachel and Nathan on top of the mountain surrounded by bloodstains? And is Burnish going to find out who Dr. Zara truly is? Find out the further we get into Episode Four: Hostiles. Please review, thanks!**


	17. Hostiles: Part 2

**A/N: And we're back people! Part two of Life is Abominable Episode Four: Hostiles! I'm not going to lie, I've planned so much for this episode and I got something in mind that's going to probably make some of you gasp, and others might cry too. I'm not going to give it away though, because that would give away what was meant to happen. But anyways, back to today's update. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_While on board a train to the Dahe village, Max has a horrifying vision with Rachel Amber, who tells her that there was somebody else involved with her murder and when the time comes she will have to make one final choice. Dr. Zara has caught onto Dave's treachery and discovered he released Jin, as well as provide him with a bag of weapons as well as the only physical copy of her mental health records. Mr. Burnish has also requested that he be sent a digital copy of Zara's record as he starts to have regrets and doubts about hiring her for his team. Max and the others have made their way to the Dahe Village after hitchhiking on board a cargo train to search for Jin so they can travel along the Yangtze River. Now, Max and Yi wander the farmer's market to try and find their friend as well as shop for supplies to help continue their journey to the Himalayas..._

* * *

**The Dahe Village. 10:36 AM**

Not even noticing Yi was still inside the Polaroid Originals store, Max continued to browse around the farmer's market until she stopped at a stand that sold some delicious looking red apples as well as some other fruits and water bottles. She purchased about twelve bottles of water, and twenty apples and placed the plastic shopping bag inside her camera bag alongside her Polaroid.

"Guess that's it for the food" Max said to herself before she turned to her left and saw another stand that sold sky lanterns. She couldn't help but be mesmerized by the different sky lanterns that were on display and for sale. A lot of them had some beautiful designs painted onto them, and others simply were blank or had Chinese symbols that meant certain things painted on them.

"See anything you like, miss?" the merchant who was running the stand asked Max politely.

"Just looking for now. But, I'll let you know if I do" Max told him. He nodded and went to tending to another customer, allowing the brunette to browse his stand as she pleased. Max then noticed six different lanterns that had beautifully landscapes painted on them. She then took note that each of these landscapes were places she and Chloe had been to during their journey to get Everest home so far. On these six lanterns were highly detailed paintings of Shanghai, the Yellow Mountains, the Gobi Desert, and the Dahe Village. The other two were places they had yet to see on their journey, the Leshan Giant Buddha statue, and Mt. Everest. Max then got an idea and turned to the clerk that spoke to her before.

"Excuse me. I'd like to buy these lanterns, the one with all those really pretty landscapes on them" said Max. The merchant smiled and stood up to remove the lanterns Max had asked for from the hooks on his stand's roof and placed them inside a plastic shopping bag. Max then took out her money and handed it to the clerk after he had told her how much they would cost.

"Have a good day, miss. I hope you enjoy those lanterns" the merchant told her.

"Thank you. Same to you, sir" Max politely said before leaving the stand to continue looking around for Jin. After a few seconds, Max realized that Yi wasn't with her.

"Wait a minute, where the Hell is Yi?" she asked herself out loud.

"Right here!" Yi answered, which made Max jump where she stood and let out a loud gasp.

"Oh, sorry. Did I scare you?" asked Yi.

"Yeah. Jeebus, you almost gave me a damn heart attack, Yi" Max told her, her hand resting over her chest where her heart was.

"Sorry about that. But anyways, any sign of Jin?" Yi asked.

"No, not yet. I was able to grab some food and water to last us a little while longer until we get to the Himalayas though. What about you?" Max replied.

"Same. I got distracted by something which was when I lost you" said Yi, lying about staying behind in the Polaroid store to buy Max the SX-70 she planned to give to her as a friendship present as well as a thank-you gift for taking her on this fantastical journey with them.

"Okay, we'll just have to double our efforts. I'm going to go check in with Chloe, Everest, and Peng and take these supplies to put them in Chloe's backpack. Think you can keep looking for just a little while longer?" Max asked.

"Yeah I can" Yi confirmed with her friend before Max gave her a quick hug and started walking back in the other direction to rendezvous with Everest, Peng, and Chloe.

* * *

Back with Chloe and Peng, they kept on looking around for Jin while still remaining in the area Max had told them to stay in. Peng sat on top of Everest who was still clad in his Yak disguise that he and Yi had put together for him, while Chloe remained on the street keeping a close out for anyone who looked remotely like Jin.

"See anything, Chloe?" asked the nine year old.

"Nope. I don't see a single sign of his slicked back hair that's probably got a crap-ton of product swimming around in it" Chloe joked, which made Peng let out a giggle.

"Glad to know you think that's funny. But seriously though, I'm worried about Jin. It scares me to think if Zara got him" Chloe said, her smile disappearing from her face as horrible thoughts of Jin being tortured and beaten by the sadistic woman flowed throughout her mind. Chloe then turned to her left to see the same man from before who was herding the other yaks from earlier approach Everest and stare at him with an odd look on his face.

"Oh, your yak is odd looking" he said. Peng then hopped off Everest's back and stood right next to him looking offended with his hands on his hips.

"Hey! Don't body-shame my yak!" Peng said. Everest let out a grunt as if to say "Yeah".

"Yeah man, what did the yak ever do to you?" asked Chloe with her arms crossed against her chest with a look similar to the one Peng had on her face.

"I'm just pointing out that I've never seen a yak like yours before" the farmer said.

"Well, he's a special case. We got him for pretty cheap at a state auction a few months ago. He's grown pretty attached to us, and he will attack anybody who even looks at him weird" Chloe said with one hand on Everest's head giving it a gentle pat. Everest nodded in reply with what his surrogate-aunt had just said with a sly smile on his face. Now the farmer was looking nervous.

"D-D-Did you uh, um... train him to do that?" asked the farmer while tugging on his shirt collar nervously.

"Nope, it just comes as a natural instinct to him" Peng answered.

"Oh well, in that case, I apologize for body-shaming him. Have a lovely day you two" said the farmer before walking over to his own herd of yaks and began leading them further down the street, away from the disguised Everest and the two humans walking right beside him. Chloe then flipped the farmer off with both her middle fingers behind his back so he couldn't see him.

"The nerve of some people, am I right, Chloe?" asked Peng as he hopped back on Everest's back.

"Tell me about it" replied the blue-haired girl as she continued to look all around the market for Jin.

"Chloe, look! Max is coming!" Peng called out.

"Mama's back! Look, Auntie Chloe! Mama's back!" Everest called out to Chloe in her thoughts. Chloe then watched Max walk up to them.

"Hey, Super-Max. You find him?" asked Chloe.

"No, Yi said she'd go look for him. I came to store all these supplies I just bought in your backpack" said Max as she took her shopping bag full of food and water bottles out of her camera bag.

"Think it'll be enough until we get to the mountain?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah, it should be more than enough actually" Max replied as she watched Chloe store every last apple and water bottle into her backpack. She then looked to see Burnish's armored truck driving down the hill and approaching the farmer's market slowly.

"Oh crap. Guys, they found us" said Max as she pointed up to the truck. Chloe and Peng began to look very worried, and so did Everest. Chloe then reached into her back pocket and took out the gun she stole from the Burnish goon she knocked out and loaded it.

"The minute I see that redheaded sadist, she's getting a bullet right between her damn eyes" Chloe growled, her grip on the gun tightened. Max then noticed another yak was walking up right beside Everest and pulled on his costume with it's teeth, causing it to fall down to the ground and Everest was exposed.

"NO!" Max exclaimed as her surrogate-son was unmasked from his disguise. Chloe then saw many more armored black SUVs come down from different roads and followed closely behind the large truck.

"There are too many of them. We can't take them all at once" Max said before she heard hovering coming from her hands. She looked down and saw a glowing blue aura emit from the center of her right palm, and it looked very same to the blue aura Everest emitted whenever he used his own powers.

"What the Hell is this?" asked Max to herself before she realized something. When Everest healed her hand, some of his own power must have been placed inside her body before the cuts were sealed up. Max then got an idea and stood in front of Chloe.

"Stay there, I got an idea" said Max as she held up her hand that was glowing.

"Max, what are you doing?" the blue-haired girl asked.

"I don't know, but I think I'm about to find out" Max answered before the blue aura began to surround her body and blow through her hair like the wind. Chloe also noticed Max's blue eyes began to glow a brighter blue. Peng and Chloe watched in absolute awe as their brunette friend began to display a new set of powers. She then let out a yell and slammed her open palm on the street, making several glowing blue-green crystals emerge from the ground like spikes. The crystals impaled and destroyed half of Burnish's SUV convoy, some of them even blew up the minute the crystal went right through the vehicle.

"Max, what did you just do?" Peng asked. Max then lowered her hand and the blue aura disappeared, her eyes stopped glowing as well.

"I don't know. But it felt... really good" she replied before she heard someone call out "Hey, you!" to them. Everyone looked to see Yi and a visibly injured Jin sitting in a small boat with a motor on the back with a large duffel bag sitting right in the middle.

"Jin! For once, I am seriously glad to see you!" Chloe said before tucking the gun in her pocket again and hopped inside the boat. Max and Peng followed suite, and Everest was the last to get on board the boat.

"It's good to see you again, Jin" said Max. Yi then began to look at Jin's body to see multiple bruises all over him.

"Jin, you're hurt" Yi said with concern in her voice.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. We've gotta get out of here before more of them show up" Jin said before he twisting the control shaft of the boat's motor and began driving them up the river and away from the Dahe Village. Peng then looked down to see Jin's shoes were all muddied up and covered in grime.

"Jin, your babies" said Peng.

"Well, Peng... my babies are all grown up. Now hang on tight, we're almost out of the village" Jin said as he continued to pilot the boat up the stream against the current. Everyone then saw Burnish's armored truck drive off the edge and into the water, but not before the wheels tucked themselves into the sides of the vehicle and a large boat underside formed right where the wheels used to be.

"I thought bad guys only had shiz like that in cartoons!" Chloe said. Max then stood up from her seat and moved over next to Jin.

"Max? What are you doing!?" Jin asked, but she didn't answer him. She held up her hand and her palm began to glow blue again, as well as her eyes. Once the blue aura began to surround her again, she focused as hard as she good and began to form a whirlpool in the center of the river. Everyone else watched in awe as the whirlpool grew to become a gigantic tornado made of water and Burnish's truck got caught right in the middle.

"Okay, that is Hella cool" Yi said in awe. Peng and Jin had their jaws dropped in shock at what they were witnessing right now.

"Have an ICE day you psycho pricks!" Max said before blew down on her hand and created a gigantic gust of wind which grew larger and larger the more it got closer to the water tornado. The minute the wind touched the surface of the water, the entire tornado turned to ice and the truck was sealed inside a gigantic icicle.

"How did you do that?! How is that even possible!?" Yi exclaimed as she watched Max sit back down after using her new powers. She looked down at her once injured hand and turned to face the others.

"I think when Everest healed my hand back in the desert, he transferred some of his own powers into me" Max explained.

"So he can give people powers too? That is so freaking cool!" Peng said in amazement.

"Guess you really are super, Super-Max" said Jin with a smile on his face. This earned him a smack on the back of his head by Chloe.

"Ow! What was that for!?" Jin asked.

"Only I'm allowed to call her that" Chloe pointed out. Everyone then began to hear the sound of cracking ice and turned their heads to see that the truck was glowing bright orange and was emitting extreme levels of heat. The ice tornado that once imprisoned them was now shattered and they were free once more. The truck/boat began to catch up to them once more.

"Go faster!" Yi shouted to Jin.

"I'm trying, but this is as fast as it goes!" Jin said as he tried to make the motor go faster but to no avail, which earned him a roll of the eyes and an un-amused look from Everest. Max then turned to Everest and began speaking to her using the telepathic bond between them.

"Everest, do something!" She shouted out in her thoughts with urgency in her voice. Everest then pushed Jin to the front of the boat before ripping the boat's motor off and tossing it into the water. The young yeti began to hum and place both his hands into the water, which created a gigantic wave that increased the boat's speed.

"It's working" Yi said happily as they began to get further and further away from Burnish's truck/boat. Peng then looked ahead to see they were getting too close to the shore and that they were about to crash as well.

"Oh, no. Guys. Guys!" Peng shouted out to get everyone else's attention. The others looked to see the shore and tried to get Everest to turn, but it was too late. Now, the boat was riding along the shore in a giant field of yellow flowers. Chloe then noticed that the truck had just crashed and flipped somewhere else into the large patch of flowers, which made her smile.

"Hope you died in that crash" Chloe snarled before looking to to the front of the boat again. Everest then began using his powers to make the ground lift up like a gigantic tidal wave like the ones in the oceans.

"Woah... this is amazing" Max whispered to herself as she watched the ground move like water and Everest was piloting them across the beautiful ocean of flowers that stood before them.

"This is impossible!" Jin shouted in disbelief as they continued to surf along the flowery surface of the ground.

"Come on Everest, make it go bigger!" Peng said. Everest nodded in reply and kept on humming, making the biggest wave of flowers anybody had ever seen in their entire lives. The wave kept getting bigger and bigger until it crashed down onto them and the boat crashed outside a large jungle. The boat was totally destroyed and everyone was lying down on the ground, covered head to toe with the flowers that the giant wave Everest created was made of.

"Ughh. My aching head" Max groaned with her hand on her forehead. Chloe then came running up to her and helped her back up to her feet.

"You alright, Max?" asked her girlfriend.

"I'm alright. Just a little banged up, but I'll live" Max answered. Yi then sat up gasping.

"Peng!" she shouted.

"Where is he?" Jin asked in worry as he sat up a moment after Yi.

"Mama! Auntie Chloe!" Max and Chloe heard Everest call out to them in their heads. Everyone then turned to see Everest whining and looking over an unconscious Peng in worry. The four ran over to the boy with worried looks on their faces. Everyone was scared that Peng could have been seriously hurt or maybe even dead from the impact of the crash. They noticed the young boy was breathing and groaning in pain and they could feel a wave of relief wash over them and began helping the boy up.

"Peng?" Jin asked.

"You alright little buddy?" Chloe asked.

"Come on, say something. Peng?" Max piped in. Peng then began gagging and coughing. Everest began too cough and retch up as well. After a few more coughs, Peng puked out some yellow flower pedals onto the ground between his legs. Everest continued to gag and retch.

"Oh no" Yi, Max, and Chloe said in unison at the exact same time.

"Everest, no. Everest" said Jin in worry, holding up his hands in front of him. Everest's cheeks began to inflate, signalling he was getting ready to vomit.

"Hold it in" Jin told him. But it was too late, Everest regurgitated an entire landslide worth of flowers out of his mouth and onto Jin's body which knocked him to the ground. Once Everest finished puking up flowers, Max, Chloe, Yi, Peng and their fluffy friend began to laugh at him.

"Hey Jin, you got a little something right here" Yi said laughing.

"Yo, Big Bird! Do you think you can tell me how to get to Sesame Street?" asked Chloe in between her laughs.

"Oh my God, you're right, Chloe! He totally looks like Big Bird!" Max exclaimed as she pointed at his flower covered body. Jin then shuddered and every last flower pedal came off his body and landed at his feet. Everest then gasped which caused everyone to turn to face what he was looking at. Yi's Violin was snapped in two, while Max's Polaroid was completely smashed to pieces.

"Oh no!" Yi said as she ran over to the violin. Max began to sob as she walked over to the destroyed camera and started to cry as she held the parts in her hands. Chloe then got down on her knees and wrapped her arms around Max in a hug, the same way Max did to her when they dug up Rachel Amber's body in the Arcadia Bay junkyard.

"Max, it's okay" Chloe whispered comfortingly into her girlfriend's ear. Max didn't listen and she just continued to cry. Everest felt so bad, he felt like he was responsible for the destruction of both Yi's violin and his mama's Polaroid. He then watched as Yi ran into the jungle sobbing and crying, and then looked back down at his surrogate mother who continued to cry.

"We can get another one, Max. It'll be fine" Chloe said, but she knew that it wouldn't be enough to replace the camera. That Polaroid was once her birth father William's camera, and the only thing she had left of him. Now that it was destroyed, she felt like all she had left of her father was permanently gone. Everest then began to cry as well and spoke to his unofficial mother and aunt in their minds.

"I'm so sorry. It's all my fault" Everest said telepathically before he began to cry and let tears stream down his face. Chloe and Max looked up to see the guilty Everest crying and began walking over to him.

"Hey, hey. It's not your fault buddy" said Chloe using her thoughts.

"Mama's just upset. And Auntie Chloe is right, what happened isn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for something that was out of your control" said Max using her own telepathic bond with the yeti to reassure him.

"But I broke your camera" said Everest, still feeling responsible for Max's Polaroid being totally smashed to the point of it being completely repairable. Max then looked up into Everest's watery eyes and began to gently caress the side of his face with her left hand

"It's just a camera though, it can be easily replaced. If anything were to happen to you though, I could never live with myself. Things like cameras can be replaced, people can't" Max said out loud instead of using her thoughts.

"I'm not mad, I promise" said Max before giving Everest a kiss on his nose, which made him hum happily.

"But what about Yi's violin?" asked Everest in his mind. Max then turned back to see Yin's violin still destroyed and lying on the ground in two pieces.

"I can probably fix it" Max said out loud before walking up to the instrument and lifted up her left hand and opened her hand to prepare to do a focused rewind on the violin. Before she could get a chance to use her powers to restore the violin, Everest stopped her and pulled her hand away. The yeti shook his head at her before picking the pieces back up into his large paws.

"No, wait. Maybe I can fix it" Everest said in Max's head before he turned around and began to tinker around with the violin. Max and Chloe only watched as Everest continued to fiddle around with it, but couldn't exactly see what he was doing with it. But after a few minutes, Everest turned back around and revealed that Yi's violin was completely repaired. There was hardly a sign of damage and the strings were put back in place too.

"Wow... it looks new. Like it just came out of the factory" Chloe said as she stared down at the instrument. Max then noticed something different about the violin, the strings were white like the color of Everest's fur.

"Everest, did you...?" Max asked, but Everest only nodded in reply before she could finish her sentence.

"That's real Yeti fur strings on it? Now that's what I call an improvement" said Chloe as she stared down at it.

"I just hope it'll play the same way it used to" said Max, hoping that Yi will happy when she sees her violin was back in one piece.

* * *

**A/N: And that's a wrap on part 2! I wasn't expecting to end this chapter on a slightly sadder note because of Max's Polaroid and Yi's violin being destroyed, but at least now they lost Burnish and Zara again for the time being. The journey will continue in part 3 and we'll find out what lies in store for Max, Chloe, Everest, Yi, Jin, and Peng. Please review, thanks!**


	18. Hostiles: Part 3

**A/N: Hope everybody's excited for this new part of Life is Abominable Episode Four because here it is! Things are going to get even more intense than before, and I mean hardcore intense. The journey will continue, and more will be revealed about the main antagonist of this story. Now, without further ado, let's start our new update shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Max, Chloe, Yi, Everest, and Peng reunite with Jin just as Burnish and his forces are about to close in on Everest and capture him once again, but fail due to Max discovering that Everest had gifted her with some of his own powers when he healed her hand back in the Gobi Desert. She uses her newfound abilities to destroy half of Burnish and Zara's convoy of heavily armored cars, as well as seal Burnish's truck inside a gigantic ice tornado that turns into a large icicle right in the middle of the Yangtze River. Everest also aids in helping the group escape by creating a gigantic tidal wave of flowers to surf on on the surface, which results in Max's Polaroid being destroyed as well as Yi's violin. Feeling guilty and responsible for the destruction of his surrogate mother's and Yi's prized possessions, Everest repairs the violin without his powers and it looks good as new. Now they will have to continue their journey with Burnish and his forces following closely behind them..._

* * *

**The Dahe Village. 11:27 AM**

Burnish was watching as a large boat tugging his trashed truck on a small garbage freight down the opposite end of the river while Zara was talking to him. What Dave had told him during Zara's ferocious beating of him still stuck in his mind. He didn't forget everything he said about Zara being a psychopathic sadist who tortured and hurt anyone who stood in the way of getting what she wanted. He still had yet to receive the digital copy of Zara's mental health records that he had ordered from one of his other employees.

"They're headed to the Himalayas, sir. And the Yeti's powers will grow even stronger the closer he gets to those mountains. But there is still one more chance to capture your Yeti" Zara told him. Mr. Burnish looked to her, pretending to sound interested in what she had to say even though he was still focused on what she was hiding from him.

"At the foothills of those mountains, there is a bridge. Once the Yeti crosses it, he'll blend in and disappear. We will never be able to find him again" Zara explained to him. Burnish had to keep the ruse going that he still wanted to catch the Yeti, even though he was now mainly concerned for the safety and well-being of those kids.

"I've never seen powers like those before. Not just the Yeti, but the girl. Somehow she has been gifted the exact same powers that it has. It's intimidating" Mr. Burnish said. He tried his best to hide a smile from her, satisfied that his lying to her was working and that she truly believed he was still on board with the mission.

"Stay the course, sir. After this, no one will ever laugh at you again" said Zara.

"You're right. I'll leave the rest of it to you then, Dr. Zara" Burnish said before walking off to one of his other employees. He then stopped walking and listened closely to what she was saying to the head goon when she thought he wasn't even paying attention.

"What does that mean for us?" asked the goon leader.

"That Yeti's price tag just doubled. And so has the price tag on Caulfield's powers. Time manipulation AND control over nature like the Yeti's? We're going to be even more richer than we ever imagined. We'll be getting sent all sorts of currencies from other countries we've never even heard of just to get their hands on those types of powers for their own military" Zara replied without her British accent, which confirmed to Mr. Burnish that she was faking that she was indeed American just like Dave had said. Once she left the area alongside the lead goon, Mr. Burnish looked over to Paul who was the same employee he requested the digital copy of Zara's record from.

"Did you get the copy, Paul?" Burnish asked politely.

"Yes, sir. I even read it over a few times before downloading it onto my tablet for you to read. I was pretty disturbed by what I found inside" Paul said before handing his employer his work tablet. The elderly man took it and began to read through everything the file had on Emily Zara. Burnish could feel his heart drop to his chest the more he read. He also read about Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson's Dark Room where Rachel Amber was kidnapped, photographed and murdered. There also police reports and witness statements from David Madsen who was the chief of security at Blackwell Academy when all of these crimes took place, and how Zara could have been a possible accomplice to Rachel's murder. He couldn't believe what he was reading and it made him sick to his stomach the further he got.

"Oh my God... everything Dave said was the truth. She's criminally insane, Paul. We have someone who's probe to being a literal serial killer on our payroll!" Burnish said to him.

"What are you gonna do about that?" asked Paul. Mr. Burnish then took out a photograph from his coat and stared down at the image. It was a photograph of him when he was younger climbing Mt. Everest for the first time in his life. He then grew sad again, wondering what had become of him, kidnapping and holding a Yeti against it's will just to regain his fame? This wasn't who he was at all, it was whom Zara was molding him to be.

"Paul, I need you to give me your gun and any ammunition you have. I have a feeling I'm going to need it" Mr. Burnish politely ordered.

"Yes sir. But, what for?" Paul asked before he handed over his pistol and all four magazines containing bullets.

"When we get to that bridge, I'm going to double-cross Zara, and fight alongside Max Caulfield and the others who're with the Yeti. She's too dangerous to live, Paul. We HAVE to kill her or else all the other Yetis could be in danger, Caulfield as well" Burnish explained. Paul nodded in agreement with everything his boss had just said to him.

"Very good, sir. And I agree, as long as she's still breathing no one is safe. And if we don't kill her, it's going to keep happening. It doesn't stop at those kids" Paul told him. Burnish then hid the gun away carefully alongside the magazines and photograph inside his coat's inner pocket. Burnish then turned to look at Zara talking with some other members of his security staff and just glared at her.

"Mark my words, Emily Zara, Rachel Amber will get justice. This I swear" Burnish snarled under his breath, tightening his grip on the pickax he used as a walking-cane.

* * *

**Back in the Bamboo Jungle. 11:42 AM**

Max, Chloe, Everest, and Peng waited patiently for Yi and Jin to come out of the jungle. Max was nervous to see what Yi's reaction would be to finding her violin repaired by Everest, and if it would play the same again after being destroyed. The minute Peng saw Jin and Yi walk alongside one another and exiting the jungle, he ran over to them to get their attention.

"Come on! Come quickly!" Peng exclaimed with a happy look on his face.

"Everest?" Yi asked confused.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Don't worry, he's fine. But... look" Max said before Everest turned around with a look of guilt still on his face and he revealed the now fixed violin to her. The Chinese teen gasped and covered her mouth with only one hand in shock to see that her father's violin that had been broken had now been repaired like nothing had ever even happened to it.

"Is that...?" Yi said but paused in the middle of her question.

"Yeti hair? Hella yeah it is" Chloe answered. Yi had never been so grateful in her life than at this very moment. She slowly took the violin into her hands and smiled with tears of happiness threatening to leak down from her eyes and down her cheeks. Everest grunted quizzically as if to ask Yi if she liked it.

"It's like nothing ever even happened. It's as good as new" Max told her.

"No, Max. It's better than new" Yi replied before running up to Everest and hugging him tightly. The Yeti was taken aback by Yi's affectionate gesture, but he smiled and closed his eyes before hugging her back.

"But Max..." Jin said out loud, and everyone's eyes were focused on Jin as he now held the pieces of Max's spectra in his hands.

"What about your camera?" he finished. Yi then gasped and broke apart from Everest before she ran over to where her backpack rested and took out the bag she had gotten from the Polaroid Originals store back in the village.

"I was meaning to give this to you after we got Everest home as a way of saying "Thank You" for this adventure, but... I think it's better that I give it to you now" Yi said before taking the box out of the bag. Max gasped to see it was the Polaroid SX-70 she had been marveling over in the village and she took it into her hands slowly.

"No way... is that what I think it is?" Chloe said as she saw the picture of the camera's side angle on the top of the red box. Even Everest looked in shock at it.

"What is it, mama?" asked Everest in his thoughts.

"It's a camera, sweetie. It's an SX-70. Something I've always wanted" Max said out loud to respond to Everest's question. Everyone watched as Max opened up the box and took out the camera to reveal what it looked like when it was closed. Max tugged on the viewfinder to open the camera up and stared down into it, a smile forming on her face.

"Same camera Ansel Adams and Walker Evans used, right?" Yi asked. Max then looked to Yi before she pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you, Yi. Thank you so much" Max said as she still hugged her friend. Yi hugged back and the others only watched with smiles on their faces at how happy Max was now that she not only had a new Polaroid, but her dream camera as well. As soon as they broke the hug apart, Max then looked into the bag and saw all the packs of film Yi had bought for it. After opening up a box and placing the film inside the camera, she looked to everyone and spoke.

"Come on guys. Let's take a selfie" the brunette said. Without even a word, they all got behind Max and watched as she prepared to press the red button close to the lens.

"Smile on three. One... two... three!" Max counted down before pressing the button and the photo printed out the front of the camera. After they watched Max shake the photo to make it develop faster, everyone gathered around to see how the picture turned out. Everest was in the back making a "Shaka Brah" sign with both his hands while everyone else just either smiled or made a silly face.

"Oh my God, it's beautiful" said Max as she stared down at the picture.

"It's pretty good, Max" Chloe said.

"Pretty good? This is the best photo ever taken!" Peng exclaimed.

"It's something to always treasure" said Jin in agreement.

"Yeah. I'm happy you like it, Max" Yi told her. As soon as the photo and camera were tucked back into Max's camera bag, Yi placed her violin back inside it's case and the others were picking up supplies from the ground and placed it back inside Chloe's backpack. Then, all of a sudden, Jin remembered something and spoke up.

"Guys. Listen to me, I need to tell you something" he said. All eyes were on Jin now, awaiting for the young med-student to speak.

"When I was captured by Zara, she tortured me and forced me to give up where you guys were going to meet me. That's how she knew where to find you" Jin said with a guilty look on his face.

"Jin, it's not your fault. Zara is a psychotic masochist who takes pleasure in hurting others just to get what she wants. She's to blame for this, not you" said Chloe, trying to reassure him that Burnish and Zara finding them at the Dahe Village wasn't his blame to carry.

"No, there's more. She forced me to tell her about Max's time powers. She has plans to capture not just Everest, but Max too. Planning on cutting her open and discovering how her powers work so she can weaponize them and sell them to other country's military forces so she can get rich" Jin told her. Now everyone looked shocked at this.

"What? She wants to turn Max's powers into some kind of super-weapon?" Chloe asked with outrage in her voice.

"Yeah. And she's planning on betraying Burnish so she can sell Everest so they can study his body for scientific research too" he continued, which made Everest back away slowly and have a scared look on his face. He looked like he was about to cry at the revelation of what Zara had planned to do with him. Max then walked up to Everest and placed her hands on the sides of his face.

"She's not going to get you. I'd rather die then let her take you away" said Max using her telepathic bond with the Yeti.

"Promise?" asked Everest using his own thoughts.

"Cross my heart and hope to die, honey. Mama's going to protect you, no matter what. The bad lady's gonna pay for everything she's ever done, I swear it" Max replied in her head. Jin then walked over to the large duffel bag of weapons zipped it open to reveal several guns and magazines of ammunition.

"One of the goons said he knew Chloe and Rachel back at Blackwell. He's the one who freed me and gave me the weapons" said Jin as he revealed the weapons to everyone. Peng then walked up closer to get a better look at the inside of the bag and reached into it to pull out a folder.

"What's this?" asked Peng.

"I dunno. He never said he included anything else in there" Jin answered. Chloe then approached Peng and held her right hand out to him.

"Lemme see that?" she asked. Peng nodded and handed the folder to her before she opened it up. The look on her face turned into a look of horror as she continued to read the folder's contents.

"Guys, look at this. It's Zara's full mental health records" said the blue-haired girl.

"Wait, what!?" Max said before she peeked over Chloe's shoulder and began to look at the documents.

"Oh my God. Is this seriously her entire mental health history?" asked Max.

"Yeah. Criminal record too, even all the times she attempted to break into Rachel's house. Nothing's been censored or redacted either" Chloe answered. Yi then took the folder from Chloe and began reading over the words typed onto the paper for herself.

"Looks like you were right about the first three diagnoses. There's another two in here as well" said Yi.

"What does it say?" Jin asked.

"It says she's also a pathological liar and... oh Jeebus, she's also got anti-social personality disorder" said Yi, which made Jin, Chloe, and Max gasp in shock.

"Are you serious right now? Let me see that" Max said before she held out her hand. Yi handed the folder to Max who read the document again and saw that Yi was right.

"What's anti-social personality disorder? I don't know what that is" Peng asked with a look of confusion on his face.

"It's a type of mental illness where someone can lie, manipulate, and violates the basic human rights of other people without any sense of guilt" Max explained it.

"There are a lot of real life and fictional characters who display this kind of behavior. Like the Joker, Hannibal Lecter, Mr. Hyde, Ted Bundy, and Dexter Morgan. All of those people, Emily Zara included, are actual psychopaths" Chloe added.

"And a lot of them... turn out to be serial killers" Yi piped in. Max then saw something else hidden behind Zara's mental health records and saw a few other things sticking out from them. She reached behind the document and pulled out a cardboard slate that was the size of a piece of printer paper, and she gasped in horror what she saw what was written on it.

"You Talk, You Die?" Jin read what was written on the slate out loud. Max recognized it, it was the same sign Nathan Prescott held up in her vision she had while she was asleep on the train.

"Look, there's something else in here" Yi said before she took the folder from Max and pulled out three photographs that looked like they were printed off a very expensive digital printer. Yi then handed the pictures to Chloe to reveal all three of them were the same black and white photos Mark Jefferson had taken of her while she was held captive in his Dark Room.

"Oh my God. She has copies of that sick prick Jefferson's photos he took of Rachel" said Chloe in disgust. She felt like she was about to vomit the more she stared down at the pictures.

"This doesn't make sense. How did she get her hands on these?" Chloe continued as she handed the photo back to Yi. Max then remembered something Rachel had said to her in her vision. While on the mountain surrounded by bloody body-prints in the snow, she said "There's still one more" when she mentioned being avenged for her murder.

"There's still one more" Max whispered out loud, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Max? What do you mean by that?" asked Yi, confused about what she was talking about.

"Chloe, there's something I need to tell you. After we rescued Everest I continued having visions of that bridge. But it wasn't Everest sending me the messages, it was Rachel" Max explained. Chloe's eyes went wide and she turned to her friend after she mentioned Rachel's name.

"Rachel? She's been sending you visions too? What were they?" Chloe asked.

"They were always the same. But the most recent one I had was when we were still on the train. I was on some mountain by myself, and there were body-prints in the snow with blood staining them. Rachel then told me there was somebody else involved in her murder, Nathan and Jefferson weren't alone when they did the crime" the brunette continued.

"Judging by the copies of the photos that were taken of her in that Dark Room, I think it's safe to say Zara was the third accomplice" Jin said as he continued to stare down at the photos while Max explained her visions.

"And Nathan was in my vision too. He looked beat up, like the same way he did after Warren beat him up in the Blackwell boys' dorm. He was holding up that exact same sign, and it had the words "You Talk, You Die" written on it before dragging his finger across his throat" Max continued.

"This confirms it. I should have known, Zara was also one of Nathan's Vortex Club disciples. It makes sense that the major diagnoses in these documents would be redacted after his parents bribed someone to do it" Chloe said as she felt her blood boiling in rage.

"Now she's trying to get her sick kicks by capturing and torturing Everest, as well as make a profit off of Max's time powers" Jin piped in.

"What are we gonna do now?" asked Yi, feeling scared and afraid. Max then looked to Everest and then back at her friends.

"We're going to fight Zara. Rachel's been giving me these visions for a reason and I think I've figured out why I'm the one receiving them. Everything that Zara's done so far, what she has planned to do with both me and Everest, these photos, this sign, these documents... it's a declaration of war" Max told them. Chloe nodded in agreement and placed one hand on Max's shoulder before speaking up herself.

"You're right, Max. Rachel can't move on unless we kill Zara. Other people have suffered because of her, not just Rachel. And if we don't kill her, who knows how many more people are going to pay the price for her greed and other sadistic desires" the blue-haired girl said in reply.

"That also explains why the guard who freed Jin gave us the documents. As well as all these weapons, we've been given the gift of knowledge and we have to use it to our advantage" Yi spoke up.

"And Max just said some of these visions she's been having took place on a bridge right?" Jin asked.

"Yeah, why?" Max replied.

"There's a bridge just right underneath Mt. Everest. It's the last major stop we're going to have to make before we finally reach the mountain" Jin explained.

"Which means we could be walking right into a trap?" Peng asked.

"It sure as Hell sounds like it" said Chloe in response to the nine year old's question.

"So we're going to have to fight back if we're gonna get Everest back home" said Yi.

"It's settled then. The next time we see them, Emily Zara will die for her crimes" Max concluded. Everyone nodded in agreement, including Everest. They knew when the time finally came, the final battle to ensure Everest made it home safely was going to be a bloodbath.

* * *

**A/N: And part three is done! Yi is happy with her violin being completely fixed, and Max is super happy that Yi has given her a Polaroid SX-70 to replace the one that was destroyed in the giant flower wave. We also now know the reason Rachel Amber has been sending Max these visions is because she has unfinished business and wants Max and the others to kill Zara so that not only she will be at peace, but many others will be too. The journey continues in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	19. Hostiles: Part 4

**A/N: Here we are! Two parts away from Episode Four being completed. I know the last episode they didn't really go anywhere, but at least there was a ton of drama and revelations packed into it. There was even an emotional moment too. But now, the journey is going to continue for real as Life is Abominable's fourth episode is updated with it's fourth part right now! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After reading Zara's mental health records and criminal history that was hidden away due to Sean Prescott's bribing and meddling at his son's request, Mr. Burnish decides when they reach the bridge below Mt. Everest, he will betray Zara and help Max Caulfield and the others get Everest home as well as kill her to make sure Rachel Amber gets justice for her involvement in her torture and murder at the hands of Nathan Prescott and Mark Jefferson in the Dark Room. Yi has also given Max the SX-70 she purchased in the Dahe village to replace the destroyed Spectra camera that she lost during their escape from Burnish and Zara. When Max, Chloe, and the others read the physical copy of Zara's records that Dave hid in the weapons bag they gifted to Jin, Max confesses that Rachel has been sending her visions and are able to connect the dots that Zara played a role in her murder. Taking these revelations as a declaration of war, the group agrees the only way to avenge Rachel and to get Everest home without anymore interference is to kill Zara for good..._

* * *

**The Bamboo Jungle. 12:22 PM**

Everyone went back to picking up what they could from the ground and putting it back into Chloe backpack and Max's camera bag. Jin also took a handgun from the bag of weapons, as well as Yi. Chloe already had the gun she stole from the Burnish guard back from their breakout mission, Max didn't take a weapon since she already had both her time and nature powers on her side, and everybody else agreed Peng was too young to be holding a lethal weapon, so they didn't give one to him. Max was now reassuring Everest that she wasn't going to allow Zara to get to him since he was still pretty scared after Jin told him what she had planned to use the Yeti for.

"I promise you, Zara won't lay a finger on you" Max said to her temporary son using her telepathy.

"What if she does, Mama?" Everest asked in his mind.

"She'll die before she even gets the chance" the brunette replied. She then turned to see Peng picking up several photos and postcards that she recognized from Yi's travel shrine back in Shanghai. The nine-year-old approached Yi and held them out to her before speaking.

"Hey, Yi. When did you buy these?" Peng asked.

"Oh, I didn't buy them. They were my dad's. He kept postcards of all the places he wanted to take us someday, the whole family" Yi answered.

"Yi, they're all the places we've been!" said Peng before handing them back to her. Max and Chloe then walked up behind Yi and looked over her shoulder to see that Peng was right. Every single postcard she held in her hand were places they've already been to on their journey to get Everest back home.

"No way. How is this possible?" she asked while shuffling through all the postcards.

"That can't be" Jin said as he approached the others to take a look for himself.

"She's right. Every last one of these places... we've been there" Max said in amazement as she continued to stare down at the pictures.

"All but one" said Yi. Everest then spotted another postcard by his foot and picked it up before approaching the Asian teen and handed it back to her. The postcard showed a beautifully taken photograph of the Leshan Buddha. The young Yeti then turned his head to the left to reveal the large statue that was shown in the postcard was closer to them then they had expected.

"The Leshan Buddha" Yi and Max said in unison and in awe at the same time as they stared out at all it's beauty.

"This is the one place that my dad wanted me to see the most" Yi told Max and Everest. Max then took out her SX-70, opened it up and looked through the camera's lens through the viewfinder. Once she got the perfect angle, she pressed the big red button and took the picture. Max shook the picture to speed the development time up after the photo printed out of the front of the camera and placed both her camera and newly taken picture back inside her bag.

"This is... this is incredible" Yi said while she chuckled in awe and excitement. Max then turned to Everest and gave a small smile to her young fluffy charge.

"You brought us here, didn't you?" Max said out loud. Everest grunted softly and gave his temporary mother a nod. Chloe, Jin, and Peng approached them and stared all the way out to take a glimpse at the large statue carved into the cliff.

"Impossible" Jin said.

"No, nothing is impossible. Not at this point" Max said, not taking her eyes off the Leshan Buddha. After staring out for a few more minutes, everybody started walking towards the direction of the statue. Chloe walked with a bitter look of anger on her face as she kept on moving forward.

"Mama? Why does Auntie Chloe look mad?" asked Everest in his mind.

"I don't know. But, it's worrying me" Max replied using her own thoughts. She then walked over to her girlfriend and gave her a tap on the shoulder to get her attention.

"What?" Chloe said bitterly.

"Are you... mad?" Max asked in a worried voice.

"What makes you say that?" Chloe answered with another question.

"The look on your face, the fact you've barely said anything after we read Zara's records, the stomping as you walk. Chloe, I know something's bothering you" the brunette calmly pointed out. Chloe then stopped and turned to face Max, everyone else stopped as well and got worried looks on their faces when they saw what was going on.

"You wanna know what's making me act like this? I'm pissed, Max. I'm pissed to the point steam could come out my damn ears! Zara has gotten away with so many crimes including her involvement with Rachel's murder, it's sickening how she hasn't been caught, hasn't been arrested, hasn't been tried in a court of law, hasn't been punished!" the blue haired girl said bitterly.

"I understand your frustrations, Chloe. I really do, but..." Max said, but was stopped by Chloe interrupting.

"Do you? Do you know what it's like to find out that someone you knew was dangerous got away with something so incredibly disgusting and had their involvement covered up like it never even happened?" she shouted. Max was taken aback by Chloe's temper, but kept her composure as she answered her question.

"No, I don't. But, why else do you think we got those files? Someone knew Zara was involved with what happened to Rachel in the Dark Room. And we've been gifted that knowledge because they knew we'd be furious and finally have the drive to do something about it" Max tried to point out. Chloe just groaned and shook her head before she began walking in the opposite direction.

"Chloe, where are you going!?" said Peng.

"I can't count on anybody else anymore. I have to kill Zara myself" she replied.

"Chloe, no! You don't!" said Jin with concern in his voice.

"Nobody else is going to do something about this. No one's gonna get justice for her" the blue-haired girl replied before she took out her gun and kept on walking.

"Chloe, stop! I said STOP!" Max shouted before holding up her right hand and twisting her wrist to the right. Chloe's legs paused and she couldn't move them. The entire upper-half of her body was free to move as it wanted, but she continued to struggle to move her legs.

"Un-pause my legs, Max! I said un-pause my legs!" Chloe demanded.

"No! Not until you listen!" Max exclaimed. She then walked in front of her girlfriend and spoke with a calm tone of voice towards her.

"I may not have known Rachel like you did, but I don't think she'd want you to do something like this alone. Zara has an entire army on her side, and you're only one person. What you're attempting to do, it's a suicide mission. You'd be gunned down the second you drew your weapon, and... I can't risk seeing that happen to you" Max said, tears now began to fall from her eyes.

"She's right, Chloe. We're going to take her out together" Yi said as she came up behind Chloe and placed a hand on her right shoulder.

"Killing that unstable psychopath isn't something that can be one with only one person. I've experienced how unhinged and dangerous she truly is, and you need to let us help you" Jin piped in as she walked up to Chloe's left and kept his eyes fixed on her own to let her know he was being serious.

"That's not a chance worth taking, Chloe" Peng said as he stood right next to his cousin.

"Worth? There is NOTHING left in this world worth having. Except, justice for Rachel!" Chloe exclaimed with rage in her voice. Max could see the tears start to glisten in Chloe's eyes, she knew that her girlfriend wasn't just angry, she was in pain.

"And we're going to get it for her. But we'll get it TOGETHER! I can't risk letting you die like this. Chloe... please. Don't... don't do this" Max said as the tears began to flow freely down her eyes. Chloe looked down at the gun in her hand and then back to Max who looked very scared for her.

"And it's not just Rachel we have to think about. What about Everest? He's suffered at Zara's hands too! He deserves justice for what happened to him as well! And what happens if you end up dying when you try to take your revenge? He already considers you his aunt, and how do you think he'd take seeing you come back covered in bullet holes and drenched in your own blood?" Yi said as she walked up next to Max.

"I-I-I..." Chloe stuttered. Her entire body began shaking in front of her girlfriend, nephew, and all her new friends. She knew they were right, all of them were. Chloe then dropped her gun and she began to sob and cry in front of Max, Everest, Yi, Jin, and Peng. Max then un-paused her legs and allowed her to fall to her knees.

"I'm sorry, Max. I'm so sorry" Chloe said in between her sobs. Max got down on her knees to reach her girlfriend's eye-level and pulled her into a hug.

"You don't have to apologize. You were hurting, you still felt pain from when we found Rachel dead and buried. I understand that you're upset, but you don't have to suffer through it all by yourself" Max said as she kept on hugging the blue haired girl as she cried into the shoulder of her gray hoodie.

"She's right. And we're going to stick by your side when we finally face Zara on that bridge. We're all in this together now" Jin piped in before he began to hug both Max and Chloe at the same time.

"Yeah. We're always going to be there to help you. For better or for worse" Yi said before she joined in on the hug as well. Peng didn't need to say anything and just began hugging the others as well, despite his arms not being long enough to wrap around everyone else. Everest then towered over them all and pulled Max, Chloe, Yi, Peng, and Jin into a large hug.

"Thanks, guys" Chloe said hoarsely before everyone broke apart from her. Max then gave her a small kiss on the cheek and took her hand into her own before continuing to walk towards the Lashen Buddha. Everest then walked right up to Max and Chloe before he spoke to Chloe using the telepathic bond he had with her.

"Are you alright, Auntie Chloe?" asked Everest. Chloe took a deep breath and allowed a small smile to form on her face before nodding and replying to Everest's question using her thoughts.

"I'm alright, buddy. I promise" Chloe telepathically replied to the Yeti. The group continued to walk until they stopped to see that the Leshan Buddha stood before them across a large river, surrounded by dark gray fog and cloudy skies.

"So, how are we getting across this thing?" asked Jin. Chloe and Yi looked to Max.

"Alright, let's see what I can do" Max replied before she stepped onto the edge of the river and held up her left hand. Her eyes began to glow bright blue again, and the same blue aura that surrounded Everest whenever he used his own powers surrounded her body. She took a deep breath through her nose and opened up her palm to face the river. Once her palm began to glow, a large bridge of ice started to form at the very center of the river, she lowered the water's temperature to make it turn to strong solid ice.

"That is so cool. Literally" said Yi as she continued to stare at Max while she created the icy bridge. Once the bridge was completely formed, Max lowered her hand, and the glow in her eyes, palm, and body disappeared.

"That was Hella awesome, Max!" Chloe exclaimed at what she had just witnessed.

**(Start playing "Fix You" by Coldplay as you continue to read this next part of the story until it says to stop)**

"Thanks. I think I'm starting to like these new powers" Max said in reply to her punk girlfriend's compliment before she began to carefully walk across the river first. Everybody else followed closely behind her and slowly walked across the surface, afraid of slipping and falling which would have resulted in them either getting hurt or falling into the river and soaking them from head to toe. Once they finally made it across the river safely, the ice melted in a matter of seconds and formed back into river water.

"You just keep on bringing in those surprises, Super-Max" said Yi, using the nickname Chloe usually used for her. Max only gave a light chuckle before replying to her friend's compliment.

"I try" she said before they all began to climb up the Leshan Buddha's legs. Max, Chloe, Yi, and Everest climbed the right leg while Peng and Jin climbed the left leg. After they finished climbing, Jin and Peng stood on the statue's left hand while Max and everyone else stood on the right hand. Yi then stood still and looked up to the Buddha's face.

"Woah" she whispered in awe.

"I wish dad were here to see this" Yi continued. Max and Chloe then looked into each other's eyes and pulled each other closer lovingly.

"I'm so sorry about how I behaved earlier, Max" Chloe whispered into Max's ear.

"Don't be. Everybody feels the pain of missing someone" Max said in response to her apology. The two then heard the sound of a violin being played and they turned their heads to see Yi playing her violin with Everest standing closely beside her on the edge of the Buddha's hand. The tune was that of a gentle Folkish sounding song and it filled the air, bouncing off the cliff walls around them, which allowed Jin and Peng to hear the music as well. The sound was enough to make Chloe and Max smile as they watched the young girl play.

"Uh, Max. Look" Chloe whispered to the brunette before pointing at Yi's violin. She noticed the violin strings began to glow a bright beautiful blue, much like the aura that surrounded her and Everest.

"Wait, what did Everest use to replace the strings on the violin when he fixed it again?" Max asked.

"He used some strands of his own fur" said Chloe before she went wide eyed and her jaw went slightly agape at the realization. Yi's violin had been transformed into a magical violin thanks to Everest's own modification to it while he was fixing it. Everyone then saw a tear fall down her face and fall down to the Leshan Buddha's hand. When the tear hit the hand, a flower bloomed in the exact same spot the tear had landed.

"Woah. That's amazing" Max whispered to herself when she saw the flower bloom. Thunder roared throughout the sky and everyone except Yi looked up to see it was now starting to rain. A large drop of rain fell down the Leshan Buddha's face like the tear that just fell off of Yi's face and dropped right next to where her own tear fell. Multiple more flowers began to bloom all around the Buddha's stone body.

"This is new" Chloe said as she watched the flowers surround the area around her. Max then saw as a blue aura began to surround Jin's body and the young man looked confused at what was happening to him. The bruises on his face and body that Zara gave him due to her torturous treatment of him began glowing the same color as the aura on Yi's violin and soon they began to shrink. The bruises continued to shrink until they just disappeared, Jin's body was now completely healed from all his injuries. By the time Yi finished her song, the entire Buddha was surrounded in beautiful flowers and the sun had just come out from the dark and stormy overcast and shined down over them. Yi then looked around to see what had just happened.

"Woah! Beautiful!" Yi said as she gazed at all the flowers that had just bloomed thanks to the powers her violin had carried.

"Thank you, Everest" the teen thanked the Yeti, believing he was the one who made all the flowers bloom. Everest only grunted softly and tilted his head to the side with a look of confusion on his face.

"Everest didn't to this. You did, Yi" Max said with a smile on her face. Yi then looked down at her violin to see that the strings still glowed a beautiful bright blue before she turned to face Max, Chloe, and Everest again.

"I did that?" Yi asked in confusion. Everest, Chloe, and Max nodded together at the same time.

"Guys, look! Jin's bruises are all gone!" said Peng as he pointed at his healed cousin.

"I can't believe it. It's some kind of miracle" Jin said as he lifted his shirt up to reveal the bruised that were underneath his clothes were all gone as well.

"It's like when Everest fixed your violin, he gave you some of his power too" Chloe said.

"That... is awesome" Yi said in fascination at what she had just did without even knowing she did it.

"One photo, for posterity" Max said before she took her SX-70 out of her camera bag and took a photo of the Leshan Buddha covered in flowers. Once Max shook the photo and placed it back in her bag along with her camera, and the others stopped marveling over the beautifully flower covered Leshan Buddha, they jumped over to the nearby stairway carved into the cliff. Everest and Peng began to laugh and raced each other to the very stop of the stairs while Max, Chloe, Jin, and Yi followed right behind them at a normal pace.

"Come on, Everest!" they could hear Peng call out as they walked. Once they made it to the top, Jin placed his hand on Yi's shoulder to talk to her.

"Yi..." he said before picking a flower off the side of the cliff and handed it to her.

"We are so going to the Himalayas" said Jin. Max and Chloe couldn't believe what they were hearing, Jin had finally opened his heart to the world around him, and was a completely different person. Jin then turned to Max and Chloe with a look of determination on his face.

"And when the time comes, when we get to that bridge... we'll spring Zara's trap and kill her before she gets the chance to hurt anyone else" Jin added.

"Well said, Jin" Max said, happy to know that he was finally taking everything she had said before to heart. She couldn't deny she enjoyed this new Jin, his upbeat and adventurous attitude really showed how much he had changed during the course of their journey to get Everest back home.

"Couldn't have said it better myself" Chloe added before they began walking again to catch up to Peng and Everest. Yi felt like the luckiest person on the planet right now, she had always wanted her life to be an adventure and now she finally got her wish. Even if the situation and circumstances were dire, she knew she'd give anything to live in the moment she was in right now.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

* * *

**A/N: There you have it, folks! Part four is complete! Only one part left and that's it for Episode Four: Hostiles! Episode Five will be underway in March hopefully, because even though they're getting closer and closer to the Himalayas, the journey is far from over. And Yi's got herself some powers of her own thanks to her violin that now has Yeti hair for strings. The journey continues in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	20. Hostiles: Part 5

**A/N: I hope you guys are ready because Life is Abominable's fourth episode concludes with this update! I'll be able to hopefully start Episode Five by March, and end this amazing story. I have to say out of all the episodes I've written for this story, this is the one I've been the most nervous about writing for a pretty specific reason. You'll find out what it is in today's update. Now, let's conclude Episode Four: Hostiles! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Peng discovers from Yi's postcards that once belonged to her late father were all the places they have been on their journey to get Everest back home to the Himalayas. Chloe has also expressed anger and outrage after learning of Emily Zara's involvement in Rachel Amber's murder and decides to go after Zara and kill her by herself, but was persuaded by Max as well as Yi, Peng, and Jin not to and swearing they would kill Zara together when the time finally came. The group also came across the Leshan Buddha, where Yi played her repaired and modified violin. Yi's music caused several flowers to grow all over the Buddha's body as well as heal Jin of all the bruises Zara had inflicted on his body back at the Yellow Mountains, leading her to discover that the strings made from Everest's fur had given the instrument magical powers much like that of Everest's and Max's power. Now, the six friends continue to make their way to the Himalayas and prepare for the final battle..._

* * *

**Inside a small forest miles outside the Himalayas. 8:42 PM**

Everyone kept walking all day, only stopping once or twice to eat or to have bathroom breaks. Once it started to get dark and the night sky looked like they could see the entire milky way galaxy, Max concluded that they should stop and rest for the night since they'd make it to the Himalayas by tomorrow. Max and Everest used their combined powers to revive a dead tree and turn it into a healthy and strong weeping willow that bloomed beautiful pink cherry blossoms on it's branches and fireflies began to surround it after Everest turned some of the pedals into fireflies that illuminated the area around them. Now, Max, Everest, and Peng sat down against the tree's large trunk while they watched Chloe teach Yi and Jin how to fire a gun.

"Alright guys, since we're walking into a war-zone tomorrow, it's important you guys know how to use a handgun" said Chloe as she loaded the bullets into the magazine of her gun and loaded it into the handle of her glock. Yi and Jin did the same, following the blue-haired girl's example.

"Let's go over the more important rules right now. First, if someone's pointing a gun at you, you always assume that the gun is loaded, even if it isn't. Second, keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to open fire on something or someone" Chloe continued before she pointed the gun at a dead tree with wilting branches. Resting on the branches were five apples that Max bought back at the farmer's market in the Dahe Village.

"Third, you NEVER take your eye off the target. If you spot an opening, you always take the shot, no matter what" said Chloe before pulling the trigger and blowing the fourth apple to bits and chunks, leaving only four apples instead of five on the branch. The bang was very loud, and caused Peng and Everest to cover their ears with their hands and paws.

"Geez that was loud!" Peng complained.

"Did you expect it to be silent? Guns are loud weapons" Max pointed out without taking her eyes off Chloe, Jin, and Yi.

"Good point" Peng replied before he continued to watch the lesson. Jin and Yi then looked to each other and nodded once to each other without uttering a single word to one another and held their guns up to the apples on the dead branch. They discharged several bullets from their weapons, releasing many loud bang sounds into the air to try and destroy the apples similar to how Chloe did. The first three times they fired their guns, they didn't hit the apple, but they hit the thick branch they were sitting on, or the trunk of another tree. The fourth time, Yi shot the second apple and Jin blew the third apple to pieces.

"Oh, nice one" Peng said when the two apples got blown to smithereens before him. He then looked to see Max looking gloomy and decided to ask what was the matter, so he tapped on her elbow to catch her attention.

"Hey, Max? What's wrong?" asked Peng.

"Just... just a little nervous is all" Max replied.

"Nervous? What's there to be nervous about?" Peng continued with the questions.

"Truthfully? Everything. The battle, finally facing Zara, and then there's... letting Everest go" said Max. Everest then grunted confusedly at what his temporary mother meant.

"I can understand that last one. Everest thinks of you as his legitimate mother now, it's probably going to be hard for both of you to say goodbye to one another when we finally reach the mountain" Peng told the brunette girl.

"I don't know if I have the strength to say goodbye, Peng. I don't even think I WANT to say goodbye" Max said.

"Well then... what are you gonna do about that? When we finally do reach the mountain?" asked Peng.

"I'm not sure yet. I just wish there was a way Everest could stay with us" Max replied. Everest then pulled Max closer to him and began to lovingly nuzzle her head with his cheek.

"Don't worry about me, mama. I'll be okay" said Max using telepathy. Max then hugged Everest, her arms barely wrapping around his large belly.

"I'm gonna miss you, sweetheart" Max whispered using her own telepathy. She then remembered something and reached into her camera bag to reveal the sky lanterns she had bought in the Dahe Village.

"What are those?" Chloe asked as she, Yi, and Jin walked up to underneath the tree.

"Sky lanterns. I found these really neat ones when we were looking for Jin in the village. Every one of these have beautiful paintings of places we've been during our trip" said Max as she un-collapsed the lanterns and showed them all to the others. Everyone looked in awe at how beautiful the images painted onto the lanterns were.

"Why did you buy these?" Jin asked as he held the Gobi Desert lantern in his hands. Max smiled before she replied to his question.

"Because I wanted us to have one last good memory together before tomorrow. It's going to be the fight of our lives, and I just want something good to look back on before we finish our journey" Max replied.

"I like that idea. So how about we light these and send them up to join the stars?" Yi said. The others nodded in agreement and Chloe reached into her pocket to take out her lighter. Once she lit the flame, she held the lighter to the brunette who sat next to Everest underneath the beautiful pink tree.

**(Start playing "Wastelands" by Amber Run as you read this next part of the chapter until it says to stop)**

"Thanks, Chloe" said Max before she took the lighter from her girlfriend and began to light the Leshan Buddha lantern that rested in her lap and handed the lighter over to Yi, who lit the Mt. Everest lantern. Jin was next as he lit the Gobi Desert lantern. Chloe lit the lantern with Shanghai painted on it. Peng and Everest lit their lanterns last, Everest held the Dahe Village lantern, and Peng lit the lantern with the painting of the Yellow Mountains on it.

"Alright, looks like we all have our lanterns lit?" Max asked. Everyone else only nodded in agreement before Everest held his lantern up to Max to show it to her.

"Look, mama. It's so pretty" said Everest using his thoughts. Max gave a light chuckle before looking up at Everest and placing a hand on his cheek and caressed it gently.

"It's beautiful, honey" Max replied using her own thoughts. The six of them walked away from the tree and over to the edge of a cliff and stared all the way out to the sky.

"So what now?" asked Peng.

"On the count of three, we let our lanterns go and they'll go up into the sky" Max explained. She then turned to Yi and gave a lone nod, letting her know she wanted her to be the one to do the countdown.

"Alright guys, on three. One... two... three!" Yi said before she let go of her lantern. The others followed suite and released their lanterns up into the sky. They all watched in awe at how beautiful they looked as they began to slowly ascend from the ground and up into the star spangled sky. Max then got an idea and held up her right hand, opening up her palm and turning it to the side. The lanterns then paused in time, standing still in the sky.

"Max, why'd you stop them?" Jin asked, confused as to why she used her powers on the lanterns. Everyone just watched as Max took out her SX-70 from her bag and adjusted the compensation meter on the camera before placing her eye up to the viewfinder.

"Because this is worth taking a photo of" Max replied before pressing the big red button. The photo printed out the camera, and after Max shook the photo, she unfroze time and the lanterns continued to elevate higher into the night sky.

"You were right, Max. This was a really good idea" Chloe said as she still kept looking up at the lanterns as they got further and further away from them. Everest then walked up to Max with a gentle smile, which she happily returned and placed a kiss on the bridge of Everest's nose.

"I love you, Everest" Max whispered out loud instead of using her telepathic bond with Everest.

"I love you too, mama" Everest replied using his thoughts. Yi, Chloe, Jin, and Peng watched happily as they nuzzled one another's faces like lions in an affectionate manner. Chloe swiped Max's SX-70 from her bag without her knowing and took a Polaroid of Max and Everest nuzzling one another. Max and Everest then looked over to Chloe with a raised eye and a smirk on their faces.

"Sorry, couldn't resist" Chloe said with a sheepish look on her face.

"Alright guys, come on. Let's hit the hay everyone. We've got a big day tomorrow so we may as well get some sleep" Jin said. Everyone agreed with him and began walking back towards the tree except for Max and Chloe. The blue-haired girl handed handed the SX-70 back to Max after she collapsed it back down as well as the photo she just took.

"Don't worry, Max. I'll still be there to help you say goodbye to Everest when we finally reach the mountain" said Chloe before the two began to kiss one another passionately. The kiss lasted for a full minute and thirty seconds before they broke apart and walked back to the tree to rejoin the others.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

Everest was the first to lie down underneath the tree. Peng lied down on his belly while Yi nestled herself in the crook of Everest's left arm, Jin rested in the Yeti's right arm. Max and Chloe lied down on Everest's belly with Peng right in the middle of the two girls.

"Will it be the same? You know, when Everest goes home?" asked Peng.

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"With us, I mean. Like, will you guys still wanna hang out?" the nine year old clarified.

"Well, when we finish this whole thing, Chloe and I are probably going to book a flight back to California. We still have jobs and friends there. But I know for a fact it's not going to be the last time we're going to see each other" Max told him.

"You mean it?" Peng asked with hope in his eyes.

"Of course, Peng. In fact, you guys can come visit us whenever you guys want. Maybe over Winter holidays, Spring break, Summer vacation, stuff like that" Chloe said.

"Really? You guys would let us some stay with you in America if we ever came to visit?" Yi asked.

"Totally. This trip has brought us closer together more than anything else could have. Without this trip, I don't think we'd see such incredible things, or meet some amazing people" said Max in reply. Jin then rested his hands behind his head and looked up past the cherry blossoms to start staring up at the night sky once again.

"You know, I'll sure miss seeing these stars" Jin said.

"Yeah, but even though we can't see them, we'll still know they're there" Peng added.

"That's pretty cool, huh?" Chloe asked.

"Yes, Chloe. It's Hella cool" Yi replied. Everyone allowed sleep to take over them and closed their eyes, not worried about what they were going to face tomorrow and descending into a peaceful slumber underneath the weeping willow.

* * *

**The Next Morning. 9:14 AM**

After waking up the next morning, Max, Chloe, Everest, Yi, Jin, and Peng had a quick breakfast of the apples that weren't shot during target practice last night and continued to walk for three hours. Eventually, everybody found themselves getting even more closer and closer to the Himalayas than they were before. As they were walking, Jin was listing the possibilities that other mythical monsters could exist if Everest was real. Peng just laughed at his older cousin's rhetoric while they continued to walk and Everest was walking in front of them, taking the lead.

"It's not funny. Loch Ness Monster? Chupacabra? What if they exist?" Jin asked.

"I highly doubt they do. Just because Everest is living proof that Yetis are real doesn't mean other things like aliens or even the Loch Ness Monster or the Chupacarba is real" Max said in response to what the young man was saying.

"Oh, my god, my whole life has been a lie" said Jin with a pale expression on his face which made Yi, Max, Chloe, and Peng laugh at the sight of it.

"Not all of it, just a little bit of it" Chloe pointed out. The sound of Everest getting excited got their attention and saw he was running over to the edge of a cliff that had a beautiful view of Mt. Everest in the distance.

"Wow, the Himalayas" Yi said in awe. Max then took out her SX-70 her bag once more and took a photo after she tweaked the settings on the camera. Once the photo printed out, she shook it and placed it into her back pocket after collapsing her camera and placing it back inside her bag. The brunette then saw down below them the same bridge she's been seeing in her visions that she had been having before her Chinese vacation with Chloe began.

"Guys, look! It's the bridge from my visions!" she said. Everyone looked down and got serious looks on their faces.

"This is it. The minute we get halfway across that bridge, Zara's going to spring a full-on ambush on us" Chloe said as she took her gun out of her jacket pocket and loaded it with more bullets. Jin and Yi looked to one another and nodded before taking their own handguns out and checked to make sure they had enough bullets to fight off a few enemies before they found themselves having to reload.

"Wait, why doesn't Max have a gun?" Yi asked.

"Don't need one. Everest and I will be using our powers the entire time" Max replied. Jin then turned to Peng.

"Peng, I need to stay as close to both Max and Everest as you can. They're the strongest ones out of all of us because of their powers, so you'll be safe with them. Just don't run out into the middle of an area with rapid gunfire, okay?" Jin told his younger cousin, wanting to make sure he knew what to do so he would be safe and not be hurt during the upcoming battle.

"Okay, I got it" Peng said with a serious look on his face.

"Zara's not going to be easy to kill though. There's gotta be at least fifty or one hundred of those goons guarding her" Yi added.

"That's why we're going to have to take out some of them first. Once there's hardly any left, we go for the kill on Zara" Chloe told her.

"And we need to keep in mind that if we lose, everything we've done up to this point will have been for nothing. Everest will go back to being held prisoner and tortured for somebody else's amusement and my powers could be weaponized and possibly even used to take over the whole world" Max reminded them. Chloe then walked up to her girlfriend and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Which is why we're not gonna lose. We're stronger together, you said it yourself yesterday. Now let's get Everest home and get some justice for Rachel" the blue haired girl said. Max smiled and nodded in approval before running ahead of all the others as they followed closely behind her. Everybody scaled the cliff downwards until they finally got to the bridge. Once they all made their way to the very center, a helicopter appeared from right underneath it and hovered right where they stood.

"This is it! Get ready guys!" Max said as she held up her hand, getting ready to use her powers to fight back. Chloe, Yi, and Jin took their guns out once again and watched as both sides of the bridge were cut off by Burnish and Zara's armored convoy.

"We're not gonna get far with that helicopter hovering over us" Chloe said as she looked up at the whirlybird in the sky.

"I'm on it!" Max exclaimed before her hand and eyes began to glow bright blue. She focused as hard as she could and started to trap the helicopter inside a gigantic tornado. The vehicle began spinning out of control and could barely maintain altitude the more Max used her powers to interfere with it's flight patterns. Zara and Burnish stepped out of their own car to see what Max was doing and her eyes went wide in fascination.

"I can't believe it" she whispered.

"Well, I can!" Mr. Burnish said before he whacked Zara across the face with his pickax and punched her in the stomach.

"Mr. Burnish are you out of your damn mind!?" the redheaded woman exclaimed in outrage.

"You paid Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott to kill Rachel Amber because you were jealous that she chose Chloe over you!" Burnish said with an angry look on his face.

"What!?" she screamed in an English voice instead of her British accent.

"And attempting to weaponize that girl's superpowers for your own wealth? I'm sorry Dr. Zara, but you are a sick and disturbed person and you must die for the safety and well-being of not just the Yetis, but all of the human race!" Mr. Burnish exclaimed before running off to join the others. Max then tilted her hand sideways and made the helicopter crash into the side of a cliff, causing it to explode into flames.

"Nice one, Max!" Jin said as he didn't take his gun off the incoming goons.

"Thanks. But we still have to handle all these other guys" Max told her. They then saw Burnish come over to them and take a gun out of his fur coat. Max then held her hand up, getting ready to use her powers on the old man but he stopped her before she got the chance.

"Wait! I'm on your side! I know what Zara did to Rachel Amber. She's a sadistic woman who's too dangerous to be left alive!" Burnish said.

"What? You mean you're not here to fight us?" asked Max.

"No. I'm fighting WITH you. We have to get the Yeti back to it's home and stop Zara from hurting anyone else" Mr. Burnish confirmed. Max nodded with a smile on her face as she looked at him.

"Glad to know we've got a new player on our team. Welcome" she said before she looked to see Zara walk closer to the bridge but stop before she could get any closer.

"Max Caulfield! You have something that belongs to me. I want the Yeti back!" Zara shouted out.

"No! I'd rather die than let you lay one more hand on my son!" Max said as she stood her ground. Zara just chuckled and kept standing where she stood with several armed goons holding up their guns at her.

"Your son? Hehehehehehe. You actually think you're it's mother?" the woman replied.

"I will effing kill you for everything you done. To Everest, to Jin... and to Rachel" Max told her as she got closer and closer to her.

"Rachel Amber should have been with me! That little punk priss did nothing to deserve her!" said Zara in outrage when Rachel's name was brought up.

"She never loved you! You stalked and intimidated her using Nathan Prescott's money to get what you wanted. Now, you're finished, and you will be put on trial today for all the disgusting crimes you've committed. You're going to Hell, Emily! And everybody's gonna smile and laugh when you do" Max said with a scornful look in her eyes while her palms began to glow inside her clenched fists.

"Well then I guess I'll see you there" Zara said with a coy smile on her face before speaking into a walkie talkie that rested in her hands.

"Gun her down. We'll take the Yeti after we've taken out Caulfield" she said into the microphone of the radio. The guards then started to approach her and were ready to take their shot. But before they could get the chance, Max extended her arms out and opened up her palms to send the armed goons flying off the edges of the bridge with two powerful gusts of wind.

"What the Hell!? Open fire! Take her out now!" the head goon shouted into a megaphone. Max then held her right hand up and turned her wrist to the side. Many bullets were fired at Max, but the brunette froze all the incoming projectiles in time before she swung her arm to the side and sent them all flying back at the goons in black.

"Take cover!" another goon exclaimed. The bullets struck many of the armed men, and many died and fell limp to the floor the minute the bullets pierced their bodies.

"We need more firepower! She's too strong!" the head goon shouted before another bullet was flung back and hit him right in the back of the head, causing him to fall off the cliff and meet his doom below.

"No no no! This can't be happening!" Zara shouted. She then saw as Yi, Jin, and Chloe were fighting the other guards on the bridge with the help of Everest's powers, while Mr. Burnish fired his own gun at his former employees as Max deflected the bullets back to them using her own powers. Once there was barely a single henchman left, Max lowered her hand and walked up to Zara.

"You wanted me? Here I am" said Max in a hateful tone of voice that matched the one she had when she faced Jefferson while she was a prisoner in the Dark Room on the day of the storm.

"If killing you and that beast is all that stands between me and being rich for the rest of my life... so be it. You'll join Rachel Amber in the afterlife this day" Zara said before taking off her coat, dropping it to the floor and undoing her ponytail.

"No guns, no powers. Just our minds, and our fists" Max stated firmly as she took off her gray hoodie and her camera bag, leaving her in her t-shirt as she took a fighting stance.

"That's fine with me" Zara said in a snarky tone of voice. The two girls shouted as they ran towards each other and began facing one another in hand-to-hand combat on the bridge. Max punched her in the face, which knocked her glasses off and sent them off the edge.

"Only needed those for reading, so you haven't gained the advantage over me yet!" Zara said before she tried to land a punch on Max, but she dodged it before her fist could collide with her cheek. Max then grabbed some snow from the edge of the bridge and threw some in her face, temporarily blinding her before she tackled Zara like a football player and began to repeatedly punch her in the face. Bruises began to form on the older woman's face and her nose began to bleed the more Max continued to punch it over and over again. She was about to deal one last punch but she stopped herself and stood back up.

"You've lost" she stated plain and simply. Zara only chuckled at Max's words.

"I don't think so. Because I forgot to tell you..." she said before reaching behind her back.

"Sometimes I cheat!" Zara said before pulling out a gun. Max held her hand up used her elemental powers to seal Zara's hand in a block of ice before she got a chance to pull the trigger.

"Yeah... sometimes I do too" Max replied. Zara only growled before smashing her hand on the bridge's wooden surface, freeing it and the gun she held from the ice. Max then grabbed onto Zara's wrist just as she was just about to pull the trigger again, but she wasn't willing to lose or give up her weapon so easily. In the midst of the struggle, Zara fired a bullet but Max didn't see where the bullet went.

"Missed me" Max said before she forcefully slammed her palm on Zara's stomach. Zara was flung back and fell on her back, causing her to drop her gun. Now that she was disarmed again, Max held up her hand and raised Zara two feet above the ground by making powerful winds surround her, almost like she was using telekinesis to levitate her.

"You think you've won? You only just got lucky" Zara spat venomously at the young brunette.

"When you get to Hell, tell Nathan I said Hi" Max said before she lifted her left arm up and twisted her wrist to the left. Zara's neck snapped and and her body went limp. Now that she was dead, Max lowered her body to the bridge and just stood over her lifeless body. She smiled and took deep breaths while she stared down at the now dead Emily Zara.

"It's... It's over" Max whispered to herself. She barely had any power left and felt like she needed a recharge. But she couldn't be anymore happy now that Emily Zara, a woman who caused so much pain and suffering was now dead and would never hurt anyone else ever again.

"Max!" Chloe and Yi called out to her. The brunette looked behind her to see Everest lying on the bridge, a large red stain covered where his heart was. Max gasped in shock, she didn't realize that the bullet that came from Zara's gun hit Everest. Now he was lying in the center of the bridge bleeding to death.

**(Start playing "Hold On For Your Life (Acoustic)" by Sam Tinnesz as you read this next part of the story until it says to stop)**

"NO! EVEREST!" Max shouted while running over to the yeti with tears now staining her eyes.

"One of the bullets struck him. I didn't even see where it came from!" Yi said as she had tears streaming down her face.

"It was Zara. She had a gun and fired a shot, I didn't even see where it went until it was too late" Max said with sorrow in her voice. She then looked Everest in his beautiful blue eyes that were struggling to stay open.

"Mama?" Everest asked using grunts instead of telepathy. Max smiled while she still cried and nodded.

"Yeah, pumpkin. I'm right here" Max whispered out loud and caressed Everest's cheek comfortingly.

"I feel sleepy, and my chest hurts" Everest said in his thoughts.

"It's going to be okay. You're going to make it, I swear" said Max, trying her best to make Everest keep his eyes open. Everest didn't say anything this time, and just smiled at her, a lone tear rolled down his cheek as he stared at Max's face. He then pulled her close and planted a kiss on her forehead

"I love you, Max" Everest said in his mind, calling her by real name instead of "Mama" like he did many times before.

"I love you too, Everest. You're my baby boy, and... I'll always be with you, even in death" Max said out loud, trying her best to not break down in front of her dying adopted-son. Within a matter of seconds, Everest closed his eyes and his entire body went limp, his hands hitting the wooden ground. Peng was now crying in Jin's arms and Yi had her hands covering her mouth while the tears came down. Chloe just cursed under her breath while she cried and her fists were shaking. Burnish just looked down at his feet sadly.

"No, no. No!" Max shouted before she walked over to the edge of the bridge and screamed out the F-word out to the sky angrily. She then got down on her knees and banging her fist on the ground screaming every curse word known to man before she began bawling in front of her friends at the loss of her son.

"I'm so sorry, Everest. I failed you. You chose me to protect you and I failed" Max said in between her sobs. Chloe then walked up to Max and helped her back up to her feet and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Max. He's gone, he's in a better place now. There's nothing you could have done" said Chloe, doing her best to comfort her grieving girlfriend. Max then broke away from Chloe's hug and wiped her tears away.

"No. You're wrong, Chloe. There IS something I can do" Max said before taking the photo she took of Mt. Everest out of her back pocket and looked down at it. Chloe knew what Max had in mind.

"Max, the last time you jumped back in time it nearly killed you" said the blue haired girl.

"I don't care about that anymore, Chloe. All I care about now is bringing back Everest!" Max said. Yi, Jin, Peng, and Mr. Burnish saw the photo in her hand and looked to her in confusion.

"What are you gonna do with that?" Yi asked, trying to keep her speech resolved as she spoke.

"I took this photo just before we crossed this bridge. Now, I'm going to use it to bring Everest back to life" Max said. Everyone gasped at this, they had no idea it was even possible but Max claimed it was, and she was going to use the Polaroid in her hand to bring back Everest.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

**-This Action Will Have Consequences-**

**End of Episode Four: Hostiles**

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry, but don't worry! Max is going to bring Everest back! I promise! All by using Polaroid and the power of time travel. But the next episode is where it all ends. Episode Five: Endgame is where the journey finally comes to it's conclusion. I hope you guys will be excited to see what will happen when March comes and the first part of Episode Five will be posted. The journey concludes in the next update. Please review, thanks!**


	21. Endgame: Part 1

**A/N: It's time everybody! The final episode of "Life is Abominable" is finally here! Well, part one of the final episode anyways. I'm sorry if the ending to Episode Four made some or a lot of you guys cry, and I honestly don't blame you. But this is the episode where we try to fix everything that happened. And how are we going to do that? Read to find out. Episode Five: Endgame begins now! So, enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After continuing their journey after discovering Yi's violin having magical properties at the Leshan Buddha, Chloe teaches Jin and Yi how to fire a gun to prepare them for the battle against Zara on the bridge that Max had been seeing in her visions on repeat. When the battle finally takes place, Max and Zara engage in combat with no powers or weapons, but Zara reveals she had been carrying a pistol in her coat pocket and attempts to fire a shot at Max. Zara fires a shot but it misses Max, whom realizes the bullet shot Everest close to his heart shortly after killing Zara with her powers. Now, with Everest dead, Max decides to use a photograph she had taken with her Polaroid camera to travel back in time and resurrect the young yeti back from the dead..._

* * *

**Miles Outside the Himalayas. 10:59 AM**

After the battle, a funeral was held for Everest, and everyone did their best to give their white fuzzy friend the proper burial he deserved. All of Zara's goons that were killed in the earlier battle were not given a proper burial, but they were given a funeral pyre, and Zara was among those who were burnt. Chloe believed she didn't deserve to be buried after everything she had done and the others agreed with her. Now, Everest was buried underneath a giant pile of rocks, and right in front of it sat a wooden cross made from two very large and thick sticks to serve as a makeshift tombstone. Burnish actually helped them with the burial and actually apologized for everything he had done, not realizing he was being manipulated and controlled by a pathological liar and sadist. Chloe then saw Max staring out into the distance while standing on the edge of the cliff, so she worriedly walked over to check on her brokenhearted girlfriend.

"You doing okay, Max?" asked the blue haired girl.

"Honestly... no. I'm not doing okay at all Chloe" Max replied, not taking her eyes off the mountain in the distance that was supposed to be their final destination.

"But why? You still have the photo you took before the ambush, you can still bring Everest back" Chloe pointed out.

"I know that, but what if I fail again and find myself back at square one all over again?" asked Max. Chloe then placed her hand on the brunette's shoulder.

"You won't, and I know that for a fact. You're Maxine Caulfield, time warrior, and you've come back from far worse than this. You escaped the Dark Room and saved Victoria's life because you knew what was going to happen, you helped Everest escape Burnish's compound, and we've always been one step ahead of Zara and her army because we had your powers to help us. One bad chapter doesn't mean the story is over, Max. You still have a chance to do everything over again and do it right" she told her girlfrield.

"You get that last part out of a self-help book or something?" Max asked with a small smile.

"Nah, I just heard it somewhere and thought it sounded cool. I know for a fact it applies to where we are now" Chloe told her. Max took the photo out of her pocket again and stared down at it for a brief minute before looking back to her girlfrield.

"You're right... our story is far from over" she said before giving the blue haired girl a hug, and she didn't hesitate to return the hug. After they finished hugging, she walked back over to Everest's grave where Yi, Jin, Peng, and Mr. Burnish still stood. Everyone heard her footsteps approaching as each step she took make a loud crunching noise in the snow.

"Hey, everybody finish their eulogies for Everest?" asked Max.

"Yeah, Peng went last. But there's still one more left to hear" Yi told her.

"Yours" Jin piped in. Max was surprised, she had now just remembered she had yet to say some kind and loving words to her semi-adopted son before she made the jump back in time to resurrect him back from the dead. Max nodded and walked up to the makeshift headstone and got down on one knee before placing her right hand on said wooden cross.

"Everest... I don't know if you can hear me right now, but... I'm sorry. I thought we had the upper hand on Zara, but in the end I failed, even with the the powers of nature and time on our side we still failed. But it's not the end, our journey isn't over until we get to that mountain. And we ARE going to reach the mountain... with you by our side, alive and breathing, and not lying dead in some hole in the ground. You chose me to protect you, to make sure you got home to your family safely, this is me keeping that promise. I love you... son" Max said before placing her lips on the cross and planting a kiss on it.

"That was beautiful, Ms. Caulfield" said Mr. Burnish as he watched Max stand back up on her feet.

"Please, Mr. Burnish, call me Max. There's no need for formalities now that we're on the same team" Max kindly corrected the elderly man in front of her.

"Oh, of course. My apologies" Mr. Burnish apologized. Jin then walked up to Max and cleared his throat before speaking.

"So, how exactly does this work? You just look down at the photo and just like that you're back at the exact same moment in time it was taken?" the young man asked.

"I'm not entirely sure how this part of my power works, but yeah. All I need to do is concentrate and stare deep into the photo until I'm at the point in time I desire to be in" Max answered.

"What's the plan once you're back at the moment the picture was taken?" Yi asked.

"Max is going to tell us everything that just happened, and we're going to take another route. One that'll ensue we don't spring Zara's trap even though we know it's coming, and bring Everest back to life" Chloe explained.

"Are you sure it's going to work though?" Peng asked.

"Positive, I've done this multiple times. If it worked before, I know for a fact it's going to work again. But I'm not sure what the consequences for tampering with the fabric of time and space will be though" answered Max.

"We don't have time to think about that right now, Max. Our main focus needs to be resurrecting Everest and that we kill Zara before she gets a chance to trap us again" Chloe told her.

"She's right. We can't be thinking about the negatives" Mr. Burnish added. Max then nodded and took a deep breath before placing her jacket and camera bag back on.

"Alright, it's time" Max confirmed. Everyone nodded once in agreement.

"Good luck, Max. I'll catch you on the other side" Chloe told her. Max then looked down at the Polaroid again and began to stare deep into the image. She could feel the environment around her alter the more she stared at the picture. After a short while, she looked back up and saw that she was still on the mountain, but something was wrong. Everyone was gone, not a single person was there with her, and Everest's grave was gone, as well as Zara and her army's funeral pyre.

"W-What's going on? Why didn't it work?" Max asked as she looked around to see if Chloe, Yi, Peng, Jin, or Burnish was anywhere to be found. Max then noticed that the ground around her began to turn to burnt black particles and levitated upwards into the sky. And the sky began to turn bright orange and white.

"No, t-t-this isn't what I wanted! What's happening!?" Max exclaimed in fear. The environment around her began to behave like a burning photograph, the black particles were the ashes and burnt negatives of said burning photo. Eventually, everything around her went completely white until she was blinded and couldn't see where she was anymore.

* * *

**Blackwell Academy. Arcadia Bay, Oregon**

"Woah!" Max exclaimed as she woke up lying on the floor of a familiar and empty room. It was the Photography class of Blackwell Academy in Arcadia Bay. Max's confusion was now replaced with worry, she remembered what was going on all too well. She was trapped in a nightmarish purgatory dimension, just like when the storm was coming closer and closer to destroying the town.

"N-No! I can't be back here! N-Not after what happened last time!" Max thought out loud to herself. She looked around and began to see that she was the only one in the classroom, and the windows that gave a glimpse of the outside of te building were covered in layers of frost.

"Why does it feel different than the last time I was here though?" Max said out loud as she began to analyze her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was a picture facing downwards on her desk. She picked the photo up and flipped it to the other side to reveal a family picture of Yi, her father, mother, and Nai Nai, but their eyes were scratched out with a needle or the tip of a knife blade. Max gasped and covered her mouth with her left hand in horror as she stared at the defaced picture.

"Oh my God... that's so awful" Max said before placing the photo back on the desk the exact same way she found it before. Max then walked over to the computer in the back of the classroom that was mainly used for editing pictures, and she saw on the screen that the Adobe Illustrator feature was running and a photo was on display.

"Wait a minute, I recognize this photo. Oh my God, it's the Polaroid I took the first time I snuck inside Burnish's compound" Max whispered in horror as her eyes were fixed on the picture of Everest in giant cuffs being roughly handled and abused by Zara's goons.

"That is too creepy" Max said before turning away from the computer and walked up to the chalkboard at the front of the classroom. There were some more photos attached to the board with double-sided scotch tape, and Max got closer to fully analyze them. The first photo showed her, Chloe, Jin, Yi, Peng, and Mr. Burnish standing at the grave they had built for Everest after the battle.

"Everest didn't deserve any of this" Max said in her thoughts before looking at the photo placed right next to it. This one showed a first person perspective of Jin being beaten and tortured. Jin looked scared in the photo and looked at the electric cattle prod getting closer and closer.

"We're gonna make her pay, Jin. I swear it" Max silently vowed as she stared at the picture with sorrow. She felt like she was standing right there with Jin as Zara tortured him and made him feel helpless and scared, which only made her hate for Zara grow stronger. She then saw a laptop on the teacher's desk, and noticed the desktop wallpaper was for Burnish Industries.

"Wait a minute, I recognize this computer. It's Jefferson's laptop" said Max as she slowly approached the computer. The brunette then looked down at the bottom of the screen to see three tabs were closed. She clicked on the first tab to reveal a newspaper article about Zara unveiling the existance of the mythical Yeti to the public. The image on the front page showed a taxidermied Everest on stage and made to pose like a monster getting ready to attack and kill it's prey wile Zara was speaking at a wooden podium to the audience that couldn't be seen. Max was disgusted and enraged at this image.

"That's not gonna happen you sick mother effer!" Max hissed through her teeth. The next tab she opened revealed another newspaper article. This time it showed five separate mugshots, the first two were of her and Chloe, and the others were of Yi, Jin, and Peng. The article said they were arrested for breaking and entering as well as trying to break the Yeti out of their heavily secure compound, and the five culprits would be given life sentances in a maximum security prison in Fuhan China.

"We're not the real criminals here, Zara. You are!" Max said before exiting out of that tab. All that remained to look at was the third and final tab, so she moved the mouse over to it and clicked on it. Once the tab was opened, another newspaper article. This one was taken from the eulogy section of Arcadia Bay's local newspaper, and it showed a photo of Rachel Amber. Max saw the date and saw that Rachel was murdered the exact same day Zara left Blackwell Academy.

"No, this wasn't how she died. Nathan overdosed her, why is it saying she was repeatedly stabbed?" Max asked herself as she continued to read through the article. She then spotted another picture on the article of Emily Zara with black text below saying she was a person of interest given her history and mental health problems. Max couldn't bring herself to read anymore and she closed the laptop.

"This is getting way too weird, I have to get out of this place" said Max before she began walking to the exit door of the classroom. Once she opened the door, she didn't find herself in the Blackwell hallways, she found herself somewhere different, somewhere familiar, someplace she had only been to once in another reality.

* * *

**Zeitgeist Gallery. San Francisco, California**

"What? I'm back in the Zeitgiest Gallery?" Max whispered to herself as she took in her surroundings. She also saw she was wearing the exact same outfit she wore when she visited this place in an alternative reality where she had won the "Everyday Heroes" contest and her picture was put up on display in this very building.

"There's no one else here. Am I seriously all alone right now?" asked Max out loud as she began walking all around the empty gallery. Before she could make her way up the stairs to where all the photos were displayed, she felt something vibrate inside her pocket and let out an audible 'Ping' noise. The young brunette reached into her pocket and pulled out something she wasn't expecting to see, it was her old phone that she had gotten before leaving for Blackwell before replacing it after the storm destroyed Arcadia Bay.

"What's this doing here? I got rid of this phone years ago" Max said in shock at what was in her hand at that very moment. After Max pressed the 'Unlock' button with her thumb, the screen lit up and showed she had multiple new messages from several different contacts. Once Max entered the four digit passcode to unlock the phone, she began reading through her messages. She had messages from Chloe, Yi, Jin, Peng, Zara, and even Everest sent her one. If Max wasn't so terrified of what was happening right now, she would have let out a small chuckle seeing how Yetis don't own cell phones, and Everest couldn't send any texts with those giant paws of his. She began to read all of her messages one by one.

**_Chloe: You are singlehandedly the worst Yeti-Mama in history, Caulfield! How could you just let Zara kill Everest like that? There's blood on your hands now, Max!_**

**_Yi: Why, Max? It was bad enough I lost my dad, but now I've lost Everest too? What did you have to gain from this?_**

**_Jin: Whatever reason you had for letting Everest die, I hope it was worth it. You're a murderer, Max!_**

**_Peng: Everest was my best friend, the bestest friend any boy could ask for. Why did you take him away from me?_**

**_Zara: I should be thanking you, Max. You allowing me to kill your "Son" has given me the ability to bring the Yeti back to Shanghai without anymore complications. So, thanks for making me rich! XOXOXO!_**

**_Everest: How could you let me get shot, Mama? I thought you loved me!_**

Every one of these texts made Max feel sick to her stomach, but Everest's text made her start to cry. It was a reminder of how she failed to protect her semi-adopted son and how she failed to keep her promise that she wouldn't let Zara do anything to him as long as she was around. Max began to sob and let tears pour down her cheeks like waterfalls while covering her mouth with her left hand to slightly muffle her cries.

"I didn't mean for this to happen, Everest. And I do love you, I really do. Mama still loves you, Everest" Max said with a lump in her throat, her sorrow making it hard for her to piece the words together when she spoke. The brunette then wiped her tears away and got a serious look on her face before tucking her phone back into her pocket.

"No... none of this real. Nobody would say such awful things like that. Not Chloe, Jin, Yi, Peng, or even Everest. It's just this stupid place trying to toy with my brain... I-I can't let it. I have to keep going forward" Max said to herself before walking up the stairs and entering the gallery. As she walked, she noticed all the previous pictures that were there the first time she came to the gallery were all replaced by different photos, and these photos were something that made Max feel disgusted.

"W-What are all these?" she whispered. All the pictures were black and white photographs of her friends, Chloe, and Everest bound with duct tape and looking scared as they were looking up at the person who was taking the pictures. These photos reminded her of the pictures Mark Jefferson took of all the girls he kidnapped and drugged to be photographed in his 'Dark Room'. Max felt like she was going to projectile vomit onto the floor the more she looked at each and every one of the pictures, but shen she took a deep breath and just kept walking.

"None of this is real" she repeatedly said to herself while she just kept walking forward and didn't look at any more of the pictures.

"None of this is real" Max repeated as she kept looking around for a door or any form of exit to get out of this nightmarish purgatory dimension. She heard the 'Ping' noise again and she took her phone back out of her pocket to see she had a new message. The sender was someone she wasn't expecting, it was sent by Rachel Amber.

"What? Rachel?" asked Max as she opened up the message to read it.

_**Rachel: There's an "Employees Only" exit in the back left side of the building. Take it.**_

She wasn't sure what to think of this, but she knew Rachel was guiding her all this time, she had to trust her. Max then began texting back.

"On my way there right now. What happens once I walk out the door?" Max said out loud as she typed a response to Rachel's message before pressing the 'Send' button. Seconds later, she saw that Rachel answered her.

_**Rachel: I'll meet you on the other side. It's time I told you the truth about what's really been happening.**_

After reading the message, Max put her phone back into her pocket and began walking over to where Rachel told her to go. Once she finally made her way to the back left side of the gallery, Max saw a small narrow hallway and to the right was the exit that Rachel told her about in her text message. Once she saw it, she began to approach the door and reach her hand towards the doorknob but stopped just as she was about to unlock the door and push it open.

"Alright... I just need to find Rachel. Hopefully she can help me get out of this place" Max told herself before she finally placed her hand on the doorknob and pushed it open. The minute she walked through, a blinding white light caused Max to groan and cover her eyes with her arm.

"Ugh! That's way too bright!" Max exclaimed as she continued to shield her eyes from the light.

* * *

**Two Whales Diner. Arcadia Bay, Oregon**

When Max lowered her arm down from her eyes she saw she was back in Arcadia Bay and in front of the Two Whales diner, where Chloe's mom Joyce worked up until the storm destroying the entire town. Max was relieved but still confused. She was happy to be back in Arcadia Bay, as well as a place that brought back so many happy memories of her childhood that she spent with Chloe back when they were young, but still baffled as to why she was here or why Rachel wanted her to go through that door only to end up in front of the diner.

"I've never been so happy to see this place in my life" Max said as she stared up at the sign on the roof that dimly glowed with neon lights. After a few seconds, Max noticed that nobody else was around her. The streets and sidewalks were completely empty, just like the Zeitgeist Gallery she had just escaped from.

"Empty, again? But Rachel said she'd meet me here" said the brunette. She then felt something on her shoulder and looked to see it was a human hand. Max gasped in fright and turned around to see Rachel Amber herself. She was wearing the exact same outfit she was wearing in her last vision on the mountain while she was asleep on the train to the Dahe village.

"Hello, Max" she politely greeted.

"Rachel. I'm seriously so glad to see you right now" Max told her.

"Good to hear. Now, I think it's time you get all the answers you've been looking for" said Rachel.

"B-But I don't understand. Answers for what?" asked Max.

"Why I've been communicating to you in your dreams, what role you have to play in all of this, and most importantly... why I chose you the same way Everest did" explained Rachel.

"Chose me? But for what reason?" Max asked, still puzzled as to what she was talking about.

"Follow me into the diner. I'll take you back" said Rachel before walking up the stair and opening the door.

"Wait! Take me back where?" The brunette asked.

"Back to the beginning. Before the storm, before your powers surfaced, before your adventure began" Rachel answered as she walked into the diner. Max then ran up the stairs and walked through the door to join Rachel inside the diner. She could only hope that the things Rachel was about to tell her would help make more sense as to why she was experiencing these visions and anomalies.

* * *

**A/N: Episode Five's first chapter is completed everyone! I am so sorry this took so long to upload/write. I've just barely had the motivation lately, but now I'm just starting to get my mojo back, and hopefully I'm able to create a final update to this story you'll all remember and enjoy. So now Max is back in the purgatory nightmare dimension from Episode Five: Polarized from the first game, and this time everything's completely different and Rachel is guilding her. But what are these "Answers" Rachel plans to give to Max? Find out in part 2. Please review, thanks!**


	22. Endgame: Part 2

**A/N: Hey everybody, Episode Five's second part is all ready to go and ready for your reading. I hope that this update will bring many answers to the questions you as the readers may have, because they will explain a whole lot of things that may have had you scratching your heads as to what they mean or what their significance to the story may be. Well, look no further because this is the update where it all unfolds for real. Now, let's dive right into the new update of "Life is Abominable" shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After burying Everest and saying their goodbyes to their fallen friend, Max attempts to use the photo she took before the ambush to travel back in time to resurrect him. However, instead of traveling back to the desired moment in the past, Max finds herself back in the nightmarish purgatory dimension she was trapped in before the storm destroyed Arcadia Bay. Halfway through the never-ending maze of pain and anguish, Max recieves a text message from the spirit of Rachel Amber which helps her escape and find herself in front of the Two Whales Diner where Rachel meets her. Max is then greeted by Rachel in the front of the diner, and offers her an explanation as to what her role in the journey she has taken truly is..._

* * *

**Two Whales Diner, Arcadia Bay. 2012**

Max walked into the diner and saw Rachel was still waiting for her, sitting at the counter. She also looked around and noticed that there were people inside the diner as well. The minute Max approached the counter, Rachel turned her head and greeted her with a small smile.

"So, you ready to hear what I have to say?" asked Rachel.

"Yes, it would help me so much if I understood why this was happening to me" Max replied. Rachel nodded and patted down on the stool that sat on her left. Max sat down right next to her and folded her hands together as she placed them on the counter.

"I know I promised you answers, you deserve that much. But to get those answers, you need to go back to the beginning. Before you came back to Arcadia Bay. You need to know what really happened with me and Zara" Rachel told her. She then looked over to the booth closest to the exit door and saw Chloe sitting across the table from Rachel. Chloe's hair was still brown instead of blue like it used to be, and she wore gray short-shorts with black leggings and a tee-shirt for her favorite band "Firewalk" with a white long-sleeve shirt underneath.

"What's happening here?" asked Max.

"This happened shortly before I graduated Blackwell, and before Chloe changed her hair. She was treating me to some "Pre-Graduation Lunch" or whatever, and I told her there was something I wanted to talk to her about while we were eating" explained Rachel as she kept her eyes fixed on the other her that was talking with Chloe.

"What was it?" Max asked.

"Watch, and you will see" Rachel responded. Max did just that and payed attention to what was going on in the booth.

"Oh, you said you had something you wanted to talk with me about?" asked Chloe. The other Rachel nodded but with a straight face.

"You remember that redheaded girl with glasses? You had Ms. Grant's class with her?" Rachel asked, trying to jog Chloe's memory.

"You mean Emily Zara? Yeah, actually. She's a strange one... why?" Chloe asked. Rachel then took out a big yellow envelope from behind her back and placed it on the table right next to her drink.

"She's been sending me these for a while now. I didn't know it was her at first, but after I was walking out of the bathroom during lunch I saw her placing one inside my locker through the vents in the door" Rachel explained. With a concerned look on her face, Chloe slid the envelope closer towards her and opened it. Inside the envelope were several love letters in cursive writing, a lot of them explained some disturbing sexual fantasies that the writer expressed in great detail of wanting to do to her.

"Oh my Jeebus, Rachel... this is sick" said Chloe as she put the letters down.

"That's not all. Some of the envelopes those letters came in had pictures inside too" Rachel told her. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out another envelope, only this one was smaller. Chloe took the envelope and opened it to reveal several digitally print pictures of the outside of her house. One photo was taken close to the dining room window that showed Chloe and Rachel having dinner together with her parents, the other even showed Rachel in her room using her laptop for schoolwork that was taken right outside her bedroom window. The most disturbing picture though was one of Rachel sleeping, and it was taken from right inside her bedroom.

"How did she even take these without your family noticing?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know. I mean... I always heard footsteps as I slept late at night, but I always thought it was my mom or dad going to the bathroom or getting a glass of water. When I saw Zara putting the envelope in my locker today, I knew it was her that was taking the pictures" Rachel explained. Chloe then shoved the pictures back inside the envelope and slammed it down on the table in anger.

"This woman is a psychopath, Rachel. Why didn't you tell the police? Or at least your parents?" asked Chloe with concern in her voice.

"It wasn't on my mind at the time. I was still pretty pissed about my dad lying about my real mother and all that jazz that it just... slipped my mind" Rachel told her. Max couldn't believe what she was seeing or what she was hearing either, breaking and entering Rachel's house to take photos for her own personal collection, writing perversive and sadistic sex fantasies in letters she slipped into Rachel's locker, evidence like that would be so damning that it would have ensured a life sentance for Zara.

"Guess it makes sense you'd tell me about this then. We can press serious charges against her, Rachel. The letters and photographs are more than enough to lock her up" said Chloe.

"It's not that simple. Even if we could take her to court and show these letters and photos to her and the Jury, she could always say she didn't do it. We'd have to have something that actually SHOWS her doing these things" Rachel explained. Chloe nodded, she knew Rachel had a good point.

"You sure know a lot about this stuff" Chloe pointed out.

"I know a thing or two about law since my dad's Arcadia Bay's District Attourney" Rachel replied.

"What do you think we should do then?" asked Chloe.

"I say we keep a close eye on her, inside and out of Blackwell. I know she's been following me, even inside my own house" said Rachel. Chloe then placed a finger on her chin and began to tap her foot in deep thought. After a minute, she stopped and looked to Rachel with what she believed to be the ideal next move.

"Let's break into Blackwell, search her locker and her dorm and see if we can catch her writing any letters or printing anymore photos like that on her computer" Chloe suggested. She had to admit, she liked the sound of this idea. If Chloe could get into the Firewalk concert, she'd be able to get into Zara's locker without any problems.

"Alright, it's a good idea. I say we go for it" Rachel said while nodding in agreement with her. Max then felt Rachel tap on her shoulder and she turned to face her again.

"After that we started planning our "Break-In" into Blackwell" she said before standing up.

"Walk to the bathroom with me" she said while facing Max. She only nodded and followed her into the women's restroom of the diner. Once they walked through the door, they were teleported somewhere else.

* * *

**Blackwell Academy. 11:57 PM**

Max and Rachel now found themselves inside the darkened halls of Blackwell Academy late at night. Max began having flackbacks of when she and Chloe broke into Principal Wells' office late and night to try and get any form of information on Nathan Prescott. Rachel then turned to Max and began to explain what was going to happen next.

"Two days after we planned everything out, we carried out our plan. It was only three days until graduation at the time, so a lot of the other students went out to town to party and stuff like that. That meant for us, breaking in and getting what we needed was going to be easier" she told Max. Their heads turned to the exit door when they heard them open, and saw Chloe and the other Rachel with her walking through the hallway with flashlights.

"Which locker did you say belonged to Zara?" Chloe asked.

"C-18. Just up ahead, it's the one closest to the window on the left" Rachel said while she pointed over in the direction she was specifying. Max then watched as Chloe took out her lock picking tools as they approached the locker.

"Hold the light on the lock for me?" Chloe asked, Rachel nodded in agreement and held her flashlight right above the lock. Chloe then got to work and began to pick at the inner mechanisms of the locker's only feat of protection.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Rachel asked.

"One of the things I learned how to do during all the time I spend with Frank, was how to pick locks. So I should be able to get into a high schooler's locker pretty easily" Chloe said with a confident whisper so she wouldn't attract the security guards that patroled Blackwell late at night. After half a minute of picking the lock, Chloe finally got it to unlock and they were inside Zara's locker.

"Boom, we're in" Chloe silently cheered while pumping her fist into the air.

"Hold the light for me?" Rachel asked before handing the flashlight over to Chloe.

"No problem, but just hurry alright? I don't know how long it's gonna be before security starts snooping around here" Chloe told her. Rachel nodded in agreement and she began looking through Zara's belongings. Some of it was pretty average, like text books as well as her class schedule taped to the locker's metal wall, as well as a poster for "The Tempest" which was the Blackwell Drama program's Spring production that year. There were even some Vortex Club posters and stickers on the wall as well.

"Anything?" Chloe asked.

"Not yet. Just some average high school crap you'd usually find inside a locker" Rachel answered.

"Didn't realize Zara was such a Vortex Club groupie" Chloe added, taking note of the posters and stickers that were stuck to the locker's walls. Rachel then looked up and noticed something white clinging to the ceiling of the locker, it was a paper envelope.

"I think I got something" Rachel said as she reached up and took the envelope. Chloe then shined the flashlight down on it while the brown-haired girl held it in her hands.

"Open it up" she encouraged. Rachel nodded and used her nail to slice through the top of the envelope. Max walked up to get a closer look at the envelope's contents and what she saw next shocked her. In Rachel's hand, she held more pictures taken with a high-definition digital camera. One of them showed Rachel undressing to get into the showers, another showed Rachel and her mother shopping together, the third photo showed Rachel and Chloe kissing one another while sitting on the bed in Chloe's room. But the one Max found truly disturbing was the picture that was taken right outside the Two Whales Diner, showing Chloe and Rachel discussing Zara's photos and letters.

"Oh dear, Jeebus. This woman is more sick that I thought" Max said out loud. She was lucky Chloe and Rachel couldn't hear her in this flashback or she would have been caught. Chloe grinded her teeth in rage at the sight of all these photos and then slammed the locker door shut.

"That's it! We need to take these pictures to Principal Wells, tell him everything that's been going on, and maybe, just maybe... he'll get the police involved" Chloe said.

"But what about Zara's dorm? We haven't even searched that yet" Rachel asked.

"Forget the dorm, Rachel. This is all the evidence we need right nere, the letters, the pictures you showed me in the diner, and the pictures we've got right here in our hands. Fifty bucks says this is more than enough to put her in jail" said Chloe with confidence in her voice. Rachel just nodded and the two of them left the school before security could show up. Once they were gone, Max was alone with Rachel's spirit once more.

"The next morning we took all the evidence to Principal Wells. Usually he would have dismissed claims like this unless we had proof, but Chloe was right, once we pulled out the letters and photos, he ordered a full inspection of Zara's dorm" explained Rachel.

"What happened after that?" asked Max.

"Wells placed Zara on Academic Probation. She was furious though and demanded that he lift it despite the evidence piling up against her" Rachel told her. She then took Max's hand and lead her into the janitor's closet which lead them somewhere else.

* * *

**Price Residence, Arcadia Bay Oregon. 3:53 PM**

**(Start playing "Back to You" by Selena Gomez as you read this next part of the chapter until it says to stop)**

Max now found herself inside Chloe's bedroom. Now, Chloe's hair was completely blue just like she remembered it being, and Rachel was lying down on the bed smoking a cigarette while the blue-haired girl paced back and forth inside the room reading some papers she held in her hand while "Back to You" by Selena Gomez played on Chloe's speakers. Rachel's spirit appeared from behind Max and began to speak once again.

"After we presented the evidence to Wells, he told my parents. My dad was pissed and began pressing charges against Zara for what she was doing. A court date had been scheduled and everything, we had a good feeling we were going to win since the evidence was in our favor" Rachel told her. Max then looked back to see Chloe sit next to Rachel on the bed and her eyes didn't leave the papers she held.

"What are those?" Rachel asked.

"It's a letter from your dad. He's requesting I come in and testify on your behalf as a key witness in the upcoming trial next week on Thursday" answered Chloe. Rachel took the papers from her and read through them thuroughly.

"Good, I may still be a little mad at him for what really went down but... he was smart to choose you to testify" said Rachel, giving her father some credit where it was due.

"I also managed to read this morning's paper before David took it into his garage. Aparently Zara's got some Hella expensive defense attourneys backing her up, and Nathan Prescott's rich as Hell parents are paying the legal fees" the blue-haired punk girl explained.

"Guess you were right about Zara being one of the Vortex Club's groupies" the other girl told her.

"I Googled both the lawyers representing her. They're sleazy as Hell, but they fight pretty fierce, they're gonna throw everything they can at us. This trial could go on longer than a month if we don't play our cards right" Chloe warned her. Rachel then gave a small smile and placed her hand on Chloe's shoulder as a comforting gesture.

"Hey, did you forget my dad's Arcadia Bay's DA? He'll do everything he can to help us get Zara expelled. Hell, if we're lucky he'll push for the judge to grant us restraining orders and even push for a pretty lengthy jail sentence for her" Rachel told her.

"I wouldn't put it past your dad to push for something like that" Chloe said while returning the smile.

"Besides, it's like you said... the cards are dealed in our favor. Not even defense lawyers would deny she did it after they see photos like the ones we found. They might even puke reading the letters" Rachel told her, which made the both of them laugh loudly. Max let out a small giggle at Rachel's joke as well.

"Courthouse janitor would be pretty pissed though when sees the aftermath" Chloe added, making Rachel laugh even louder than before.

"Tell me about it. Poor guy's probably going to demand a pay-raise after he finishes cleaning it up" Rachel said in between laughs. The sound of something tapping against the glass window caused the two girls to stop their laughter and turn their heads to where it was coming from. Chloe walked over to the speakers and shut the song off before walking over to the window to see who or what was making the noise.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

"Uhh... Rachel? You better come take a look at this" said Chloe with a concerned look on her face. Rachel then got up off the bed and walked over to the window right next to where her blue-haired girlfriend stood. Standing right below them was Nathan Prescott himself, he was tossing tiny little pebbles up at the window to get the two girls' attention.

"What? He followed me here?" Rachel asked with a horrified look on her face.

"Followed you? Has he been stalking you too?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah, ever since Zara was ordered to stay away from me until the court date. He was outside my house earlier this morning too" the brown-haired girl told her. They then looked down to see Nathan holding up a sign written on a cardboard slate. The words "You Talk You Die" were written in sharpie, and he pointed to both Rachel and Chloe before making a cut-throat guesture with his finger across his Adam's apple.

"He was holding that exact same sign earlier this morning" Rachel said before taking her phone out and showing a picture of Nathan standing in the driveway of her house holding the sign to Chloe. Max gasped and covered her mouth with both her hand in shock, it was the exact same sign that was in her vision, as well as the one that was included in Zara's file that Dave gave to Jin the large weapons bag he gifted to him. Rachel's spirit then spoke up again.

"That's when things started to take a turn for the dark" she said before walking over to the door that lead to Chloe's hallway. Max then followed her out of the room, and just like before, the door teleported the two of them to someplace entirely different than the place they were before.

* * *

**Somewhere Outside Arcadia Bay. 11:24 AM**

Both girls now stood in front of a beautiful one-story ranch-style house made entirely of brick with a black Cadillac parked in the driveway in front of the garage, and five bird-feeders hung from the front porch. Max didn't recognize this place, she had never been to this house before in her life.

"Rachel? What is this place?" asked Max. Rachel only walked up to the mailbox that rested at the beginning of a pathway made entirely of circular shaped stepping stones and pointed to the side of the metal box. Max slowly walked up to the mailbox and looked to where Rachel was pointing and saw the name "Jefferson" written in black adhesive letter stickers on the side of the mailbox. Max felt her heart start to go faster in fear, this was Mark Jefferson's house, the house belonging to the man responsible for Rachel's death.

"Jefferson lived here!?" Max asked in outrage.

"I'm afraid so. Because this... is where things took a turn for the dark" answered Rachel's spirit with a somber look on her face.

"A turn for the dark? What do you mean by that?" asked Max, not understanding what Rachel meant when she said that.

"The court date was getting closer and closer by this point. Three days until it was scheduled to happen to be precise. That's also when Zara decided she would do anything to dodge punishment and make herself look like a victim. After she got some money from Nathan's family and lied about what she was going to use that money for, she came here" explained Rachel. After she had finished her explanation, both girls heard the sound of a car coming and turned their heads to see a silver 2007 Chevy Cobalt LT Coupe parking right in front of them, only a few inches away from Jefferson's driveway.

"Is that her?" Max asked.

"Yeah. She's brought the money with her and ready to ask Jefferson for a special favor" Rachel told her. The two of them watched as Zara got out of the car with the envelope full of the money the Prescott family had given her wedged in the crook of her arm. The redheaded teen readjusted her glasses and began walking up the stepping stone path all the way up to Jefferson's front porch. Max and Rachel followed right behind her until they were standing only two feet behind her as she rang the doorbell and knocked on the front door.

"Who is it?" a voice called out from the other end of the door. Max knew the voice belonged to Jefferson.

"It's Emily, Emily Zara. I took your class last semester" Zara answered. A few seconds passed and the door opened up to reveal Mark Jefferson wearing a light blue tee shirt as well as some faded gray jeans.

"Miss Zara, isn't this a nice surprise" Jefferson greeted.

"I'm so sorry for showing up to your house like this, but there's something I wanted to talk to you about" Zara said.

"Oh, of course. No need to apologize, please, come on inside" said Jefferson politely as he moved aside and invited her inside his home.

"Thank you, sir" Zara politely thanked as she entered the house. Max was about to follow her inside, but Rachel grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her before she could go into the house. Once Zara was inside, Jefferson shut the door behind him and locked it. Max then worriedly looked over to Rachel and asked a question.

"He's not gonna..." Max was about to continue but Rachel spoke up before she could say another word.

"No, she was never drugged or taken to the Dark Room like I was. In fact, she knew that the Dark Room existed" said Rachel. This made Max surprised a bit, she didn't know that Zara knew about the horrible thing that Nathan and Jefferson were doing to female Blackwell students for their own sick sense of pleasure.

"Then why would she come here?" Max asked, bewildered as to what she had planned. Rachel signalled for the young brunette to follow her around to the back of the house, and she did just that. Max followed her until she and Rachel now stood on the back deck and watched Jefferson and Zara through the sliding glass door.

"Prepare yourself, Max. Because what you're about to see is Emily Zara about to commit the most heinous crime a person can commit... hiring someone to torture and murder a person" Rachel warned Max, which made her gasp in horror and watch as Zara prepared to make the deal that would send Rachel Amber to her grave.

* * *

**A/N: And there you have it, the nearly completed backstory of Emily Zara as a psychotic stalker and a conspirator in the murder of Rachel Amber. The next update, we will get more answers to more questions that have gone unanswered, specifically, why Max was chosen to help Everest get back home as well as kill Zara. Every second we get closer to the end of the journey, so be prepared for some hardcore drama and thrills headed your way. Please review, thanks!**


	23. Endgame: Part 3

**A/N: Well hello everyone! Everything's been getting pretty intense lately in this story, so much has been revealed yet more questions remain unanswered. Episode five part three is where everything comes full circle, and Max's destiny is truly revealed to her. I'm seriously getting excited seeing how this story is almost nearly completed. So, let's get started on part three now, shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_Still trapped in the Purgatory dimension, Max is taken through time by Rachel to tell her the story of how Zara's stalking has affected her life. Max learned that Zara had written a series of deranged love letters as well as pictures of Rachel taken inside her own home, including one while she was asleep in her own bedroom. Even after presenting the evidence to the police, and a court date set to take Zara down for good, Nathan Prescott and his family defends Zara and attempts to paint the accusations as lies, even going as far as threatening Rachel with death if she spoke against Zara in court. Rachel then takes Max to Mark Jefferson's house, where she explains Zara is about to hire both him and Nathan to aid in her murder..._

* * *

**Jefferson Residence. 11:28 AM**

The two girls watched as Zara sat on the couch of Jefferson's living room, patiently awaiting for him to join her as soon as he was done in the kitchen. Jefferson had taken a steaming hot kettle off the stove and poured it into two mugs, one was a plain white ceramic mug that could be found at any department store, and the other looked like a camera lens. After Jefferson poured the water, he inserted the two tea-bags inside and stirred them up before walking into the living room with both mugs in his hands.

"Tea, Miss Zara?" he offered.

"Thank you, sir" Zara politely thanked him before taking it into her hands.

"So, you said there was something you wanted to talk to me about?" Jefferson asked as he sat in the large leather recliner right next to the couch that she sat on. Max watched closely and kept her ear close to the back door screen so she would be able to listen and understand what they were talking about much more fluently.

"Indeed I did. I'm just going to get straight to the point here if you don't mind" Zara said.

"Oh, no, absolutely. Great idea" Jefferson said with a nod.

"Alright then. I know what you and Nathan have been doing with the female students in your class. Drugging them, taking them to your "Dark Room" and photographing them tied up and too high off their rockers to make out what's happening or remembered what you did to them the next day" said Zara.

"M-Miss Zara... I have no idea where you got the idea that I would ever..." Jefferson said, but was cut off when Zara held her index finger up at him as a signal to get him to be quiet. She then reached down into the envelope containing the money and pulled out some photographs of Nathan and Jefferson taking a classmate of his named Portia Walkins to the barn where the Dark Room was hidden with her hands and ankles tied together with gray duct tape. Jefferson was now starting to sweat nervously, he couldn't deny it now that the proof was in front of him.

"Fret not, Mr. Jefferson. I'm not here to blackmail or threaten you, I'm here... to make a deal with you" Zara said after she set the photos to the left of where she sat.

"What kind of offer exactly?" asked Mr. Jefferson.

"I want you, to drug and kidnap Rachel Amber. Do your usual thing with Nathan that you'd usually do with her, give me copies of all the photos you take. And after that, I want you to kill her" said Zara with a serious look on her face, as well as a tone of voice to match. The last part almost made Jefferson spit his tea out after taking a sip during her explanation.

"W-What? K-Kill her?" Jefferson asked in complete and utter shock.

"Nothing too extreme like a knife or a bullet. She's too beautiful to leave any holes or stabmarks in her body... a second more lethal dose of whatever crap you and Nathan have been buying from Bowers should do the trick" Zara told him.

"I don't understand. Why would you ask me to kidnap, photograph and kill Rachel? Isn't she the girl you have a massive crush on?" asked Jefferson with a hint of confusion in his words.

"She'd rather hang out with that blue-haired punk than me. I feel like this will serve as a form of "Disciplinary Action" so to speak, to show her how wrong she was for choosing Chloe Price instead of me" Zara explained. Max could feel her blood boiling with rage the more she listened in on the conversation, she wanted nothing more than to barge in and kill Zara herself, but it would have been pointless since this had already happened in the past and not the present. Zara then turned to her right and picked the envelope into her hand before tossing it over to Jefferson, and making it land on his lap.

"I like to pay for my services in advance, if you don't mind that is?" said Zara with a smirk before taking another sip of the tea Jefferson gave her. He reached into the envelope and began counting the money in his hands, bill by bill. Each and every one of the bills in the envelope are all hundreds, and not a digit lower than that. Jefferson had now counted about five thousand five hundred dollars before placing it back on the envelope.

"I trust that will cover it?" asked Zara. Both she and Jefferson stood up at the exact same time and locked hands with one anothers before commencing with a firm handshake.

"It most certainly will. You've got yourself a deal, Miss Zara" Jefferson said with the same creepy smile he had given Max while he photographed her in the Dark Room years ago. Zara returned the smile and nodded in reply while she shook the older man's hand. Max then watched as Jefferson escorted his guest out of the house and back to her car like a gentleman while they discussed what their best course of action for comitting the kidnapping would be.

"I trust you know what happens next" Rachel said, catching the younger brunette's attention. Max then looked to Rachel with a remourseful look on her face, and tears began falling down her face.

"Oh, Rachel. I'm sorry, I-I-I didn't know..." said Max, trying to express the sorrow she felt for Chloe's past lover knowing that her life was stolen from her all because one person refused to leave her be.

"Don't be, you didn't know any of this was happening until you returned to Arcadia Bay and discovered your powers. There was nothing you could have done" Rachel told her. Max then watched as she opened the back door that lead into Jefferson's house, but the minute she walked through the doorway, she disappeared. She knew this meant Rachel wanted her to follow her to somewhere else, so without delay she placed her hand on the doorknob and yanked the door open before running into the house and through the portal.

* * *

**Location Unknown. Time Unknown**

In a bright flash of light, Max found herself somewhere she didn't recognize at all. She was standing in the middle of a beautiful meadow of violets and honeysuckles. In the distance there were tall mountains completely covered in snow, and the sky was a beautiful shade of lilac covered in twinkling stars as well as two full moons in the sky. Max then looked down and saw that her outfit had been changed, now she donned a beautiful yellow sundress with no sleeves that went halfway down to her knees as well as yellow low-top converse sneakers.

"What is this place? I have no idea where I even am" Max asked herself out loud.

"I do" Rachel's voice said, causing Max to look behind her and gasp in surprise. She saw Rachel's outfit had been changed as well. She now wore a beautiful sleeveless burgundy dress that went all the way down to her ankles, and she had white high-heeled sandals on her feet.

"Why would you bring me here? What does this have to do with Zara and Everest?" asked Max in confusion.

"If you follow me, I will show you" Rachel gently replied before walking right past her towards a white gazebo that had appeared out of nowhere. Still unsure of what was going on, Max followed Rachel to the gazebo as well as look around as she walked. Max didn't know somewhere she didn't know about could be so absolutely beautiful. Once the two brunettes were finally underneath the roof of the gazebo, Rachel turned to Max and asked her a question.

"Have you ever wondered what happens when we die, Max?" asked Rachel.

"Sometimes, but not all the time though" Max answered honestly.

"I'm pretty sure you're aware that when someone dies they ascend to the afterlife right?" Rachel asked, making Max nod in reply this time instead of speaking.

"Sometimes, a soul cannot move on if they have unfinnished business. These souls end up here in the In-Between, where they stay until their heavy burden is lifted from their shoulders" Rachel told her.

"And you just so happen to be one of them?" asked Max.

"Exactly. I never wanted what happened to me to happen to anyone else. I was outraged that Emily Zara was still walking amongst the living while I had my life and everything I had ever wanted to do stolen from me" Rachel told her while she stared off into the lilac galaxy sky.

"And so you've been stuck here all these years until someone finally avenged your murder, of course! That's why I've been seeing that deer, it was you sending me messages from the In-Between right?" Max asked. Rachel turned to her and gave her a lone nod with a smile on her face.

"Yes, I had been watching Chloe as she tried to find me without any success for many years after Zara murdered me. When you came back and discovered your rewind, I knew you would be the one to help Chloe in bringing my killers to justice. But even after Nathan and Jefferson were killed, I couldn't move on" Rachel explained.

"Because there was still one more" Max whispered out loud.

"That "One More", was Emily Zara. As long as she still lived, I would never be able to leave the In-Between and my soul would never ascend to the afterlife. There were many pieces missing from the puzzle, but I knew without the right help Chloe couldn't make them fit" said the older brunette. Max could only imagine how awful it felt to know your killer was still walking free and that you would never be able to leave a plain of fabric of existance between life and death. To her, it sounded heartbreaking, like a neverending Hell she could never escape from.

"Well, what happened after the storm destroyed Arcadia Bay?" asked Max.

"After that, I turned my attention to Zara. I watched her every move from this gazebo, waiting for the right opportunity to punish her and condemn her for everything she did" answered Rachel. Max then began to hear the sound of water dripping from the gazebo's ceiling. She turned her head to see that the ceiling had indeed been leaking and a large puddle had formed in the very center of the dark chocolate polished hardwood floor. Max looked down at the puddle to see something on it's watery surface, it showed Burnish's men capturing Everest and leading him away from the mountain in chains like a savage beast. Watching this made Max's heart ache, she couldn't stand to see her semi-adopted son in such pain like that.

"I knew since you and Chloe would be in China at the exact same time Everest was to arrive at Burnish's compound in Shanghai, I knew this was the perfect opportunity. I created the telepathic link between you and the Yeti, and later on during your journey would gift it to Chloe as well" Rachel said as she also stared down into the puddle along with Max. The younger brunette's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with both her hands in shock and awe.

"Wait a minute... y-you're the reason Chloe and I can speak to Everest with our thoughts?" Max asked, still amazed at what she had just heard.

"That's exactly right. I had appeared before Everest while he was in transit to be delivered to Burnish's research facility, and I had planted a dream in his mind. The dream was similar to the one you had the day before you and Chloe boarded your plane to Shanghai, only it showed you holding your hand out to him on the bridge. The minute he had awoken, Everest knew that this mystery girl would save him from the people who had taken him away and return him to the mountain" Rachel explained in great detail.

"I-I-I can't believe this... it makes sense. It all makes sense now" Max said with a grin forming on her face that grew with each second.

"All this time I thought it was chance or fate behind this, but in reality... it was you, Rachel. You've been guiding us all this time, fighting behind the scenes and making sure we would follow the path you paved for us" she continued.

"And you have done so well. But even after you killed Zara... I couldn't leave. I didn't understand why at first, but the minute I saw Everest clutching his bleeding chest, I knew why I wasn't moving on to the afterlife. Everest had to make it back to the mountain alive after Zara was killed. Another innocent soul had paid the price for Zara's greed, and my heart broke when you broke down crying after he had succumbed to Zara's bullet" Rachel said sadly, a tear rolled down her cheek and into the puddle. Max's smile was now gone, and now she had a look of anger on her face, but her rage was not directed at Rachel, it was at the woman who had taken away the closest thing she had to a son.

"I swear on my life, Rachel, that's not going to happen again. I'm going to bring Everest back to life, and this time I'm going to do it right! Zara's going to die, Everest is going home to his family, and you will finally be able to happily ascend to the afterlife knowing that the woman who made your life Hell is gone for good" Max promised while clenching her fists tightly.

"I know you will. Because I can see in your eyes you love him like he was your own child. You and Chloe have given him so much these past few days, that it makes me smile every time I see him laugh and smile with you two" said Rachel. Max's angry look disappeared and only a small smile stood in it's place as she replied to Rachel's statement with a single nod.

"You love him, don't you?" Rachel asked.

"With all my heart, Rachel. He may not be human, but that doesn't mean I'd love him any less. I'd give my life for him if it meant he would be happy" Max answered.

"Good, because I mentioned the last time we spoke there would have to be one final choice to make. And that choice is drawing closer with every step you take towards the end of your journey" Rachel told him.

"And what choice is that?" Max asked. Rachel just chuckled and shook her head before she spoke to the younger brunette girl.

"I'm afraid I cannot say. That is for you to discover yourself once you've finally reached the mountain" she answered before turning down to look at the puddle. Max looked down at it as well, and this time it showed a beautiful beach that was completely empty.

"This is where we say goodbye, Max. I've given you all the answers you need to understand your role in this journey, and now it's time I sent you back to the mortal realm with the knowledge I have gifted you" Rachel said, not taking her eyes off the puddle.

"Thank you, Rachel. And I promise I won't let you down, Zara WILL die and Everest will get home safelty without having to pay with his life" Max swore sincerely.

"I thank you as well, Max. But before you go... I ask that you look into the puddle again, but this time look deeper. There's one last thing I must show you, and may it help you in making the right descision" Rachel said before she had began to fade away until she was completely gone, leaving Max all alone in the gazebo by herself. She then did as Rachel instructed and stared deeply into the puddle, the harder she focused, the more a blinding white light began to fill every angle of the puddle's surface. After a few more seconds, she found herself being teleported somewhere else.

* * *

**Unknown Uninhabited Beach. Unknown Time**

Max now found herself no longer standing in the gazebo in the In-Between, and this time found herself on the same beach she saw in the puddle. Her clothes had been completely changed once again, now she donned an orange tank-top with brown short shorts, and black sandals, around her neck rested a dreamcatcher necklace. Max was initially confused at first, she wondered what it was that Rachel wanted to show her before sending her back to the realm of the living, as well as how it would play into the "Final Choice" she had forementioned before disappearing.

"What is this place?" Max whispered to herself. Out of nowhere, Max could hear music filling her ears. There was nobody else on the beach so she had no idea where the music was coming from.

**(Start playing "Alice" by the Cocteau Twins as you read this next part of the story until it says to stop)**

What Max saw in front of her next was something she certainly did not expect. Standing in front of her was Everest playing Tag on the beach with her and Chloe. These versions of her and Chloe looked much different than how they looked now, Chloe wore a pink tank-top and black shorts, her hair had grown out much longer and the color of it was no longer blue, but bright green. The other version of herself was wearing a black tee-shirt with a picture of a full moon on the front, and dark brown skinny jeans. Her hair had grown slightly too, only it reached down to the bottom of her neck, and had been styled in a much more grunge-like fashion, and her brunette hair was a much darker shade of brown, almost like dark chocolate.

"Tag! You're it, Everest!" Chloe said out loud before running down the sandy shore.

"Not if I catch you first, Auntie Chloe!" Max heard Everest say telepathically. Even though it was only just a vision, it was comforting to hear Everest's voice in her head once again.

"Yeah, go on! Go get her, Everest!" the other Max cheered as she ran after them. The sight of this was enough to make Max smile and start crying tears of happiness, she had no idea something so simple as watching herself playing tag on the beach with Everest and Chloe could make her heart feel so warm. Why Rachel wanted to show her this was still beyond her understanding, but it made her feel happy and lift her spirits after everything she had been shown previously.

"Tag! You're it!" Everest telepathically said as he gently tapped on the back of Chloe's shoulder.

"You better watch out, Mad-Max! I'm coming after ya!" the green-haired girl taunted as she started running after the other Max after Everest tagged her.

"Betcha that you won't get the chance to lay a finger on me!" said the other Max before laughing and running away from them.

"C'mon, Everest! Help me catch mama!" Chloe said in her thoughts. Everest only nodded and began chasing after the other Max with his auntie. Then, all of a sudden out of nowehre, a big white window appeared and was levitating in mid air. Max was curious as to what that was doing there, so she walked over to the window and looked into it to see the inside of a beautiful house filled with Christmas decorations. Max also saw herself, Chloe, and Everest sitting in front of a Christmas tree, and they weren't the only ones there. Yi, Jin, and Peng were sitting on the couch wearing the goofiest looking ugly holiday sweaters she had ever seen before.

"Alright Everest, let's see what Santa brought you" said the other Max as she handed Everest a large box covered in red wrapping paper with tiny little silver spots on it and a big gold bow on the top of the box. The Yeti took the box into his hands and shook it close to his ear to see if he could determine what it was.

"Open it up, big guy. Let's see it" Chloe encouraged. Everest then took the lid of the box off and gasped when he saw what was inside. He reached in and took out a giant dark blue pullover hooded sweatshirt that was his exact size.

"You like it?" the other Max asked Everest.

"I love it! Thank you mama!" Everest said in his thoughts before pulling her in for a big hug, which took her by surprise at first but she happily returned it.

"It'll keep you warm until Spring comes in April" Chloe added. Max then looked behind her to see a door standing on the surface of the beach. When she looked back in front of her the window had completely disappeared and was nowhere to be found. The song that had been playing inside her had was no longer audible as well, it had completely stopped.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

The brunette girl then looked over to where she saw Everest playing tag with her and Chloe but even those other versions of them were gone as well. Now, she was alone once more on the beach with nothing but a plain wooden door painted white with a gold doorknob. Max then walked over to the door and analyzed all it's features, she also felt a small blast of cold air coming from the door's keyhole.

"This must be how I get back to the past" Max said to herself. She then slowly reached her right hand out in front of her and placed her hand on the gold metallic knob tightly. After taking a deep breath and exhaling, she let out a nod and turned the knob to the right which sent the door flying open to a big blank white room. After she walked in through the door, everything went completely white and she could feel herself awakening from Purgatory.

* * *

**Outside the Himalayas. 9:14 AM**

"*Gasp*" Max said as she awoken to the exact point in time she had taken the Polaroid of Mt. Everest in the distance. She saw her SX-70 was in her hands and watched while taking steady breaths as the picture printed out of the front of the camera.

"Max? Is something wrong?" she heard Chloe ask as she put a hand on her shoulder. Max couldn't be more relieved than she was right now to see her Chloe again. She then looked to see Yi, Peng, and Jin staring at her with worried looks on their faces.

"Oh my god, Max... your nose" Jin said, pointing that blood was pouring out of both her nostrils and down her mouth and chin.

"Here, let me help you clean that up" said Chloe as she pulled out a dirty white cloth and wiped Max's face completely clear of blood as well as have her blow her nose of any excess blood.

"Wait, where's Everest? Where is he?" Max asked with a worried tone of voice.

"Mama, I'm right here. What's wrong?" Everest asked using his mind to communicate with Max. The brunette then ran over to her semi-adopted son and hugged him tightly before she began crying into his chest. Everest was confused but hugged his temporary mother back tightly to comfort her. Everyone else was worried and confused as to why Max was acting like this and wanted to know why.

"Max, is something wrong?" asked Yi. Max then broke away from the hug and she turned to face the others to explain everything that she had just seen and learned back in the purgatory dimension.

"Guys... we can't go on that bridge" said Max with an urgent tone of voice. Everyone began listening to her as she began her long explanation of what Rachel had showed and told her.

* * *

**A/N: There you have it everyone! Max is finally out of the purgatory dimension, and has information to share with Chloe, Everest, and the others too. Because now that Max has been bestowed the gift of knowledge, it can be used to change the outcome of what happened before in the previous timeline. Now, we're two episodes away from the finale, and we shall see what the outcome will be. Please review, thanks!**


	24. Endgame: Part 4

**A/N: I hope everybody's excited! Because after this update will be the final entry of Episode Five, and the finaly of this story that has come so far and has developed many loyal fans and readers! Thank you all so much for taking this journey with me, making my first video game crossover with one of my favorite animated movies has been one of my greatest challenges since writing "Sherman of the Apes" and I'm looking forward to making stories similar to them. So now, let's continue the story we've got going on right now, shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After showing Max how Zara negotiated and bribed Jefferson into assisting in her kidnapping and murder, Rachel reveals that she has been guiding Max from an extradimensional plain of existance between life and death known as the In-Between. Max has also learned that Rachel is responsible in Everest's choosing of her to help take him back to his home in the Himayalas, and that she cannot properly ascend to the afterlife until Zara has been killed and Everest makes it back to the mountain alive and breathing. But before sending Max back to before the battle on the bridge which cost Everest his life, she warns her of one last choice she will have to make before they finally reach the mountain, but refuses to tell her what that "final choice" actually is. Rachel also gives Max a vision of Max and Chloe playing with Everest on a beach years later. Now, Max has finally returned to the past with the knowledge Rachel's spirit had bestowed upon her and proceeds to tell Chloe, Everest, Yi, Peng, and Jin everything she had just learned as well as what is to happen if they do not take action to change the future..._

* * *

**Outside the Himalayas. 9:19 AM**

"Well... I-I mean... damn" Yi said. Everyone was in shock at everything Max had told them, how the battle cost Everest his life, how Rachel had been guiding them this whole time. Chloe was quick to believe every last bit of what Max said right on the spot since she knew traveling back in time using a Polaroid and changing the outcome of the future was possible since it happened before back in Arcadia Bay, while the others were still processing everything that had just been told.

"So, Zara was really behind all of it? Bribing Jefferson with the Prescott's money to help kill Rachel" asked Chloe.

"Yeah, I know it's a lot to take it in right now but I know Rachel wouldn't have told me all this back in Purgatory if it wasn't important that I knew everything" Max replied.

"And that she's the reason Everest chose you? Communicating to both you and him from the afterlife?" Jin piped in.

"Not the afterlife, the In-Between. Souls with unfinished business are stuck there until their business is done" Max corrected him.

"Auntie Chloe? Who's Rachel?" asked Everest telepathically.

"Rachel was someone very special to Auntie Chloe. One day she went missing, and I would end up spending six whole months trying to find her. After Max came back we discovered she was kidnapped, murdered, and buried in the junkyard we used to hang around at" Chloe explained to her nephew out loud instead of using her thoughts.

"I thought time rewinding powers, yetis, and manipulating nature was bizarre but ghosts sending messages from the afterlife in order to bring the one who killed them to justice? This is some "Lovely Bones" type stuff" Yi said.

"Not gonna lie, Yi, I was thinking the same thing" Max replied with a chuckle at the end.

"So what are we gonna do? We can't just go onto that bridge and let Everest get shot" Peng said with a worried tone.

"We're not. We're going to take another route and sneak past Zara's trap underneath her nose" Max explained.

"But what about Mr. Burnish? You said he takes our side and joins us, right?" asked Chloe.

"We'll figure that out later, all that matters right now is making sure the battle deosn't happen and that Zara doesn't kill Everest while it happens" Yi said.

"She's right. Making sure Everest gets back to the mountain alive and breathing is our number one priority right now. If it means we have to fight and kill Zara afterwards, then so be it" Max agreed.

"Okay, so if the bridge is down on the right... does that mean we should be going left instead?" Jin asked. Yi then walked over to Max's camera bag and pulled out the map before she set it down on the ground by their feet. Everybody gathered around and looked down as Yi pointed where they were.

"Alright, this is is where we are, and the bridge is right over there. So if we were to go the other direction, we would be walking into this village right here" Yi told them.

"I think I remember this. It was evacuated and abandoned after an avalanche nearly wiped out half the village" said Jin.

"It's perfect. That means there won't be anybody around to see Everest and if Zara and her cronies show up, there won't be any casualties should another battle take place" Chloe said. Once Max tucked the map back into her camera bag, she turned to the others and spoke.

"Guys listen. There's still one more thing I have to tell you. In a few minutes, I won't know any of this happened. Everything between now and when we reach the village will be a complete and total blur from my brain. You'll have to tell me exactly what I did and said just now. Just explained that I traveled back to the past using the Polaroid I took of the mountain, got it?" Max instructed.

"Absolutely" Chloe said with a nod.

"I understand" Yi piped in.

"No problem. We're in this together, aren't we?" asked Jin.

"Right" Peng said. Max then looked over to Everest and held her hand out to him.

"Don't worry, sweetie. I promised I'd keep you safe and wouldn't let anything happen to you. This is me keeping that promise" Max said to Everest in her thoughts. The young yeti then took her small hand into his larger one and was guided alongside her while everyone else walked ahead. And in a big bright flash of yellow-orange light, Max could feel herself being transported forward in time, to another timeline.

* * *

**Abandoned Village. 10:02 AM**

After the giant flash of light, Max gasped loudly and looked all around to see she was standing in a desolate town in complete ruins. Tiny little snow flurries fell down from the sky slowly, and the sky was partly cloudy with small rays of sun shining down on where she stood every few seconds. The buildings that surrounded the village were partially or fully destroyed, some debris even littered the dark gray stone streets the young brunette girl stood upon. She looked right behind her and saw Chloe, Everest, Jin, Yi, and Peng staring off towards somewhere in the distance. Max was now smiling happily, she had successfuly changed the future and Everest was still alive.

"Everest!" Max shouted as she ran over and gave the Yeti a loving and relief-filled hug.

"Looks like Super-Max is back from her little time trip. You doing okay?" Chloe asked.

"Never better, Chloe. It's never felt so good to hug my son again" Max said with a great wave of relief filling her voice.

"I'm okay, mama. I didn't get shot like you said I would" Everest said using telepathy.

"And you have no idea how glad I am that you're still alive" Max replied in her thoughts. She had never wanted to stop hugging someone so much before, she felt like she wanted to hold onto Everest and never let go because of how happy and relieved at the same time she was that her semi-adopted child was no longer dead. Chloe then looked up into the distance again and she had a worried look on her face.

"They're getting closer guys. And I don't think they're to happy that we figured them out" the blue-haired girl told the others.

"This is so not good. This is not good at all" Peng nervously said. Max then looked up to where Chloe was looking and saw a line of bright lines that went on for at least a whole mile. It was Burnish and Zara's convoy, which made Max's heart drop down to her stomach in fear, this was what she was hoping to prevent. Max then turned to the others and worriedly spoke to them.

"Guys, I need you to explain to me what happened in between now and when we left" asked Max with distress in her voice.

"After you told us everything, we started walking towards this place. It took us a while seeing as how a ton of Burnish's troops were on the ground below the bridge area, and we also had to climb the mountain wall downwards to get here" Jin began.

"We thought we got here without being spotted by the ground troops, or at the very least the occassional helicopter flying around. We thought we were in the clear until a few seconds ago" Yi continued for her friend.

"Somebody must have spotted us and told Zara where we were hiding. Now the convoy's getting closer and closer by the second" Peng concluded. Max then clenched her fists tightly and turned to the others with a firm look on her face.

"I hoped we wouldn't have to deal with this until we finally got Everest back to the mountain but... it looks to me like we're going to have to fight another battle" said Max. Everyone gasped at what she had just said, they were hoping they wouldn't have to fight another battle after the one that took place in the previous timeline which resulted in everyone having to bury their big white fluffy friend, but now they had no choice.

"Are you sure, Max?" asked Chloe.

"I'm sure. Nobody's going to be able to reach the mountain until we kill Zara and every last one of her troops" Max said with a nod to reasure her girlfriend that she was positive about fighting once more.

"What's the battle plan this time?" Jin asked.

"Everybody pick an abandoned building and hide there. Once the fighting starts, you start firing at Zara's cronies. The less we have to deal with them the better" Max said before turning over to Everest.

"Everest and I will stay out here. It's me and him Zara wants for both our powers, so we'll serve as the bait until we're ready to start fighting" continued Max.

"I'm scared, mama. What if I die again?" Everest said using his thoughts. His big blue eyes looked like they were about to unleash a waterfall of tears down his eyes.

"You won't. Because this time, we'll be using our powers to their fullest extent to take out whoever tries attacking us" said Max out loud so everyone would be able to hear.

"You think it'll be enough to work?" asked Yi.

"If we're both using our abilities, nature and time fighting alongside one another, it should be more than enough to overpower them completely" Max told her friend.

"Okay, if you say this'll work, I believe you. And I hope this is the last battle we have to fight on our journey... for all out sakes" Yi said before taking out her pistol. Chloe and Jin followed suite and loaded a clip of ammunition into the weapon before splitting up and choosing a place to hide for the surprise attack. Max and Everest then nodded at one another as they stood their ground and faced the entrance of the village. Now, all they had to do was wait until they finally arrived.

* * *

**Six Minutes Later**

After a brief waiting period, black trucks and SUVs began entering and surrounding the village. One of them carried a giant metal cage on wheels, which Max could only suspect was for Everest, which made her blood boil at the thought of Everest being dragged out of the village in that cruel and cold metal contraption. Everest was scared, but Max telepathically reassured him and told him to be brave, and that was all it took for Everest to be ready to fight.

"Maxine Caulfield is it?" Zara said, continuing to speak with her obviously fake British accent as she approached the brunette and stopped once she was four feet away from her. Seven armed men carrying stun-batons surrounded them as well and prepared to attack if either the human or Yeti tried attacking.

"MAX. Nobody calls me Maxine. And I know who you are... Emily Zara" said Max.

"Really now? What else do you know?" Zara asked.

"That you bribed Mark Jefferson and Nathan Prescott into helping you kidnap, torture, and murder Rachel Amber... a girl who loved somebody else and you just couldn't accept that. So you allowed envy to take over and you resorted to hiring someone to commit the most heinous crime a human being can commit" said Max, her hands clenched tighter. Zara was in awe at how she knew all this.

"How do you know all that?" Zara demanded to know. Max ignored the question and kept on talking.

"I know you want to weaponize my powers too. Well, I hate to burst your bubble Emily, but you're not getting them. And you're not getting my son either!" Max said while she now began speaking through her clenched teeth in rage.

"Your... son? You really think that beast is your son? He's not even human!" said Zara.

"Everest is more human than you will ever hope to be. And just stop with the BS accent, you're not fooling me" Max said while not taking her eyes off the redheaded woman.

"That thing belongs to me, as will you once I subdue you both" Zara said with her regular American voice. The sound of a loading gun was heard from behind her and everyone looked in shock to see Mr. Burnish holding a gun up to her. Burnish spoke to Zara as he slowly walked backwards over to where Max and Everest were surrounded.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that, Ms. Zara. The Yeti needs to go home to where it belongs... I was wrong for wanting to prove their existence to the rest of the world. And you... you're... YOU'RE A BARKING MAD SADIST PRICK!" Burnish shouted just as he was finally standing by Max's side. She smiled at Burnish's betrayal and looked at him before letting four words escape her lips.

"Welcome to the team" Max said before extending her arms out and having her glowing blue hands open up to have powerful gusts of wind knock the armed goons to the ground. Completely enraged, Zara pointed at Max, Everest, and Mr. Burnish before screaming the word "ATTACK!" at them.

"This is where the fun begins" Max said out loud before using her pause ability to protect herself and the others from the rapidly oncoming bullets, pausing them in mid-air and sending them flying back at where they came from, killing the troopers holding the guns that had originally fired the bullets.

"No! No! No! This can't be happening!" Zara screamed in disbelief and rage. Everest then let out a loud roar and slammed his fists down on the ground, causing giant glowing green crystals to emerge from the surface to destroy multiple vehicles and killing more armed goons by impaling them through their chests.

"Eat lead, you traitorous slimeballs!" Mr. Burnish shouted as he began firing at his own hired goons. He fired above the chest area where their bulletproof vests wouldn't be protecting them and each bullets killed the soldiers on impact.

"FOR RACHEL!" Max heard Chloe scream. She knew now that she, as well as Jin and Yi would be firing at the other goons they wouldn't be able to take out without abandoning their positions.

"Dr. Zara! Follow me!" the head goon said before taking the redhead by her arm and taking her to the heavily armored truck that served as their leading vehicle and locked themselves inside the front. Seeing how many have already been killed, Zara got an idea which caused an evil wicked grin to form on her face. She turned the keys that were still inserted into the ignition and floored it towards Max, Mr. Burnish, and Yeti.

"I thought we had to keep Caulfield and the Yeti alive!" The head goon pointed out.

"Dead with have to do!" Zara furiously said as she began picking up the speed to turn the three into roadkill. However, Max noticed and raised her glowing blue left hand in the air and slammed it down on the ground to have a gigantic vat of crystals appear in front of the truck. Since this took Zara by surprise and gave her very little time to react to that she just saw, she crashed the truck into the giant crystal formation. The impact of the crash was so great, it launched the head goon out of his seat and through the windshield, causing him to the on impact when his body in the ground.

"Good riddance, never really liked him anyways" Mr. Burnish said. Zara was still in the driver's seat, but her head hit the steering wheel, causing blood to emerge from the top left side of her forehead and it trickled down her face as well as over her left eye.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Zara screamed while pounding her fists on the horn like a five year old who was just put in time out for not playing nice with the other kids would do. She took her gun out from her coat and undid her seatbelt before getting out of the car.

"How is this even happening!?" Zara asked as she marched over towards Max.

"Because I fought you before..." said Max before holding her hand which was surrounded with Everest's signature glowing blue aura and sent a powerful gust of wind her way to knock her down. Zara was pushed back two feet away and knocked down to the ground while Max continued to speak and walk even closer towards her.

"...In an alternate timeline. You lost, but before you did you killed Everest..." Max continued before she stopped walking and saw more of Zara's cronies aiming their guns at her. Using her pause ability, she froze them in time before using her nature abilities to have tiny little windchill tornadoes surround them and encase their bodies in ice. Once the gunmen were completely frozen, she continued what she was saying to Zara."

"...I reset the timeline to redo everything over. But this time, to do it right" she concluded.

"So in the previous timeline I actually killed the yeti?" Zara asked to make sure she heard Max right.

"You won't get the chance to do it again" the brunette said as she got closer. Zara then held her gun out at Max and tried to fire a shot, but it was too late. Max had grabbed the barrel of the gun, and her hand was now glowing orange instead of blue, and it wasn't just her palm, her entire hand was glowing orange. Zara then watched in awe as extreme heat emitted from Max's glowing hand and completely melted her gun's barrel, even the trigger was jammed due to the heat fusing it to the metal.

"Don't think you're going to take me on so easily just because the stupid animal infused you with it's power!" snarled Zara before attempting to throw a punch at the brunette. Max hated when Zara said the words "Beast" or "Animal", anything that was meant to make Everest sound like an object instead of what he really was.

"His name..." Max began before grabbing the redhead's fist with her other hand.

"...Is Everest!" she shouted before slamming her orange glowing palm on Zara's chest and emitting a powerful blazing stream of fire from the center of her hand. Chloe, Everest, Burnish, Peng, Jin, and Yi were in awe to see that their friend now had mastery over the element of fire. Everest was more surprised because fire was the hardest element for a yeti to master, and to know his temporary mama could harness the power of fire blew him away.

"Ahh! I'm on fire! Fire!" Zara screamed as she unzipped her coat which was being chewed away by Max's flames.

"And he's not an animal... he's my son!" Max shouted before using her nature abilities to create several sharp tipped icicles in the air and send them flying towards the redheaded woman. After successfully getting her burning coat off, she ducked and dodged every icicle Max sent flying her way.

"You couldn't have Rachel, and you sure as Hell can't have either me, nor my son!" said Max as she kept her eyes fixed on Zara.

"Stop denying reality, Caulfield. That Yeti is going to make me the richest woman in the entire world! And so will your powers! You are not standing in my way of becoming more rich than even Bill Gates would ever hope to be all because of your stupid motherly affections towards a dumb animal!" Zara ranted at the brunette before she found herself getting kneed in the stomach and an elbow to her jaw.

"I told you NOT to talk about my son like that!" Max shouted before headbutting Zara so hard her nose began to bleed. Zara didn't even flinch, she just wiped the blood away with the sleeve of her turtleneck sweater and took out a pocket knife.

"You know Max, I bet you were expecting a fair fight. But I figure I should just tell you that..." Zara was about to continue but Max interrupted her and finished the sentence for her.

"That you cheat? Heard it before, you said that before you tried shooting me. And you wanna know what I said after that?" Max asked. Zara then ran towards the brunette shouted and attempted to stab her, but she felt her arm which held the knife being weighed down. She saw Max had completely sealed her arm in ice.

"Sometimes I do too" Max finished before punching Zara right in the face, causing some bruises to form underneath her eye. Zara slammed her frozen arm on the ground and the ice was completely shattered, but the knife she was holding before was too.

"This time... we fight my way. No powers, knives, or guns. Just our minds... and our fists" said Max. Zara gave a sadistic chuckle and stood back up on her feet.

"That's fine by me, hippie trash" the redhead replied before holding up a boxer's fighting position.

"And the most important rule... no cheating" Max hissed through her teeth.

"Fine! I'm going to enjoy killing both you and the Yeti! Nobody ever said getting rich came easy" said Zara as she cracked her knuckles.

"I promised Rachel Amber I would kill you so she could escape the In-Between and move on to the afterlife, so she wouldn't have to worry about you hurting anyone else ever again. I'm not someone who makes false promises, Zara, I'm going to kill you, and Rachel will finally get the justice she deserves" Max vowed. Zara was shocked, her look softened at what she just said.

"You... you actually SPOKE to Rachel? How?" she asked.

"I'm guessing you never watched a single episode of Ghost Hunters in your life huh? Ghosts always have unfinished business, and Rachel Amber's... is making sure you die" Max answered.

"You really think you're going to be the one who walks away from this fight alive?" Zara asked, her evil and sadistic grin returning to her face.

"Watch me" Max snarled as she took her jacket off and set her camera bag gently on the ground. The two girls engaged in hand to hand combat, and the fight was on. Everest, Chloe, Yi, Peng, Jin, Mr. Burnish, and the surviving goons kept their eyes fixed on the fight, awaiting which one would emerge the victor and walk away with their lives.

* * *

**A/N: And there is part one of the final battle before the final update is posted! And I hope you're all excited because the epic conclusion and the final choice that Rachel had mentioned back when Max was still in the purgatory dimension will be revealed. Please review, thanks!**


	25. Endgame: Part 5 (Finale)

**A/N: So, we're finally here! Everything has lead to this one moment. The finale of "Life is Abominable" is finally here. This has been one of my favorite stories to write, and I'm actually so happy that many people enjoy it. As I'm sure you all remember, the last update was super intense, but now we will continue where we left off and conclude Max and Chloe's journey to return Everest home to the Himalayas once and for all. The "Final Choice" Rachel's spirit foretold about will be revealed as well. So, let's wrap this story up! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Previously on Life is Abominable..._

_After sharing the knowledge passed onto her by Rachel's spirit in the Purgatory dimension, Max, Chloe, Yi, Peng, Jin, and Everest take another path to avoid the bridge and make sure the battle from the previous timeline never occured. Yi reveals on the map the route to an abandoned village at the bottom of the mountain that was evacuated after an avalance, and everybody agreed it would make an excellent place to seek shelter and avoid Zara's convoy. Once arriving at the village, Max sees that somehow Zara saw them sneak past her trap, leading them to have the final battle take place in the ruins of the village they've traveled to. Now, Max and Zara face one another in combat once again, but not before Max destroys Zara's gun using the element of fire, the hardest element even for a Yeti like Everest to master. All eyes are on Zara and Max as the fight progresses through the ruined village..._

* * *

**Abandoned Village. 10:16 AM**

Zara kept throwing rapid punches at Max every few seconds, only to have her fists blocked by Max's defensive moves and counter attacks. Max created a giant glowing light blue sphere of cryogenic energy from her palms and then pushed it forward to seal Zara's entire arm in ice just as she was about to send the next attack straight at the brunette's face. The weight the ice placed on her arm caused Zara's attack to fail and now she struggled to pick it up off the ground as Max stood over her.

"You just wanna cause trouble and hurt anyone everywhere you go. Wasn't killing Rachel enough for you?" Max asked as she kept her guard up, preparing for Zara to attack just in case she had a trick up her sleeve.

"It won't be enough until you and the yeti are joining her in the ground once I kill you and harness the secrets of your powers for myself!" Zara said before she swung her leg underneath Max's feet and sent her tumbling down to the stone pathway that made the village's street up. The redhead then smashed her frozen arm on the ground and freed it of it's icy prison.

"Well that's not going to happen! Because unlike you I actually have someone and something worth fighting for!" Max shouted as she got back up and tackled Zara like a football player before backing a foot away from her. The brunette's hands began to glow bright orange and scorching hot flames began surrounding them. In regular circumstances, fire would usually burn and scald a person's skin badly, but Max felt absolutely no pain from these flames, and her skin didn't burn either.

"And what might that be?" Zara asked as she stood back up.

"My girlfriend" Max began before throwing a fireball at Zara which struck her chest and left a hole in her turtleneck sweater right below where the collar would be.

"My son" she continued before launching another fireball at her enemy. This one hit her knee, and causing the leg of her pants to emit embers from where the fireball hit the knee. Zara shouted in pain as she was now down on one knee.

"And my family!" Max concluded before repeatedly hitting Zara in the face from multiple angles with fire-punches. Embers emerged from her face with each and every punch she inflicted on the redheaded woman's skin. Knucklemarks were visible on Zara's face, they were pink and fleshy due to being burnt from the fire Max's powers created.

"Your family? You're even more foolish and naive than Rachel was" said Zara with a weak chuckle while she struggled to stand back up. Max's leg began glowing bright orange as well, and she gave Zara a fiery roundhouse kick to the face, sending her flying all the way to the edge of the cliff that the abandoned village rested upon. Max's pants remained in-tact, not a single fiber of her pants was scorched from the fire, not even her converse shoes.

"Rachel was a more kind and loving person than you would ever hope of being. And Chloe and Everest are my family now, so are Yi, Peng, and Jin. Every single one of them are good natured people who know what it's like to be loved and to give it to others" Max said before her hands began to glow blue instead of bright orange, and formed a small tornado to lift Zara up to her tip-toes. Zara was now scared for her life, she was at the mercy of Max and her elemental powers.

"Please. I'm begging you! Mercy!" Zara begged.

"Oh, like how you showed Rachel mercy?" Max asked with her eyes fixed on Zara. The brunette then saw a large shard of glass lying on the stone street and then looked back at Zara.

"Please... I loved Rachel. I only wanted to be the only girl in her life" the redheaded woman whimpered.

"Well now you can see her again..." Max said before using her other hand to levitate the large glass shard with the wind and launched it into Zara's midsection. The minute the glass penetrated through her abdominal region, Zara's eyes went wide and she let out a loud gasp through her teeth.

"IN HELL!" Max concluded her sentence screaming before pushing Zara off the edge of the cliff. She screamed as she fell until a loud thud was heard when she hit the bottom. Everybody winced when they heard Zara's body hit the ground, some of them heard the sound of loud cracking and crunching noises, meaning that the impact of the fall left many of her bones broken and crushed. Max was now happy, Emily Zara was dead and Rachel Amber could now properly ascend from the In-Between into the afterlife to finally rest in peace.

"MAX!" she heard many other voices shout as they got closer. Max saw Chloe, Yi, Peng, Jin, and Everest running over towards her with smiles on their faces. Everybody formed a giant group hug around Max.

"You did it! I can't believe it! You did it!" Yi cheered as she hugged Max tightly.

"She's finally gone!" Peng exclaimed. Chloe then looked into Max's eyes and placed a hand on her cheek.

"I told you we'd finally kill her" Max whispered lovingly.

"And Rachel can finally move on now, right?" Chloe asked. Max's only reply was a chuckle and a nod before pulling the blue-haired girl into a passionate kiss. Yi and Jin smiled at the sight, as did Peng and Everest. Once the two broke their kiss apart, Max turned to Everest with a smile.

"Is she really gone?" Everest asked telepathically.

"Yes, sweetie. She's gone. I promised nothing bad was ever going to happen, didn't I?" Max replied out loud. Everest's only response was a nod. Everybody watched as Max and Everest hugged tightly, and both of them had a tear of happiness fall down their face and drip down from their jaw into the snow. Jin sniffled and sobbed at such a happy sight, and Yi's eyes glistened with tears of happiness. Chloe nodded with her arms crossed against her chest while trying her hardest not to cry at what she was seeing right now.

"I love you, mama" Everest said in his thoughts.

"I love you too, my sweet Everest" Max replied in her mind as well. The two eventually broke the hug and turned to see Mr. Burnish standing before them. After the old man cleared his throat, he looked up at the Yeti and spoke softly.

"Everest, you are by far the most extraordinary creature I've ever seen. And that is exactly why the world... must never know you exist. They would never understand, not like how Miss Caulfield and Miss Price would" Mr. Burnish said with a warm and kind smile on his face.

"Actually, we'd be alright just being called Max and Chloe. We're not all that into formalities" Max awkwardly told the elderly man.

"Oh yes, of course. My apologies, Max. Now, may I please help all of you get back to the city?" he offered.

"Thanks, but our mission's not over yet. We still have to get Everest back home to where he belongs on the mountain" Chloe politely declined before looking all the way up to Mt. Everest. Mr. Burnish now looked bewildered at what the blue-haired girl had just told.

"You're going to take Everest all the way to Everest? That's almost impossible" he asked.

"Mr. Burnish, if there's anything I've learned from all this besides that Yetis exist, and that people with powers do indeed live among us... NOTHING is impossible. Especially when Max sets her mind to something" Jin said. Max couldn't help but smile at what the young man had just told Mr. Burnish. She was happy that he was now a changed person instead of the social-media savy aspiring medical student she knew back in Shanghai when her trip with Chloe first began.

"Very well then. But is there anything I could do for you before you go? Anything at all?" Mr. Burnish asked. Everyone's eyes then looked over when they saw Peng shivering at how cold the air had just gotten, and a small windchill began forming around them.

"Actually, think you could maybe lend us some coats?" Max politely asked.

"The ones your surviving cronies are wearing over there should do the trick" Chloe piped in. Without a moment of hesitation, Burnish instructed everybody to hand their coats over to Max, Chloe, Yi, Jin, and Peng who took them without a second thought. Everybody was now feeling much warmer than they did before.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Burnish" Yi gratefully said.

"No problem. I'll be waiting right here for when you get back" said the elderly man. Peng then looked up at the mountain with concern on his face, and spoke to his friends without taking his eyes off the mountain.

"Uh, guys? It's a long way up there" the nine-year-old said. Jin then got an idea and turned to Max, who only nodded in reply with a smile on her face to let Jin know she was thinking exactly what he was thinking right now.

"Everest?" Max and Jin said in unison. Everest then began to hum and the familiar blue aura began to surround the yeti's body. From the clouds came three giant Koi Fish with bodies formed entirely of clouds.

"Okay, now that is awesome!" Chloe said in awe at what she just witnessed before her.

"Everybody hop on guys! We're about to end our little trip the minute we get to that mountain" Max said as she got onto the back of the first cloud Koi with Chloe and Everest. Yi got on top of the second, and Peng rode with Jin on top of the third fish's back. Once everybody was seated on their own separate fish's back, they began to elevate high up into the sky and make their way towards the mountain.

* * *

**Mt. Everest. 10:32 AM**

The cloud koi had landed safely below the top of the mountain and allowed Max, Chloe, Jin, Everest, Yi, and Peng to get off and run up towards the mountain. Four whole minutes of hiking up to the mountain's large top had passed before they stopped and looked around in confusion.

"Where are all the other yetis?" Yi asked.

"Yeah, shouldn't there be a ton of them here right now?" Chloe asked in addition to everybody else's confusion. Everest then began to hum and used his powers to lift the fog from where they stood and revealed something absolutely horrifying. Many Yetis were lying dead in the snow, not moving nor breathing. Max gasped in horror at this as did everyone else. She recognized this from her vision, it was foreshadowing the other Yetis dying on the mountain before they could even get the chance to arrive and deliver Everest back to his biological family safely.

"No! W-What happened?" Peng asked in horror as he saw all the lifeless Yeti bodies surrounding him.

"This doesn't make any sense. Why would this happen?" Jin said as he analyzed one of the corpses. Max began to cry when she realized what caused all the Yetis to die.

"This is my fault! My tampering with time caused this!" Max exclaimed as the tears began falling down her face. Everyone gathered around her to reassure her, but could only watch as the brunette girl continued to blame herself for the horrors they were witnessing.

"When I brought Everest back, I ended up changing the course of everything. My interfering with how the timeline was meant to play out just created nothing but horror and death!" Max said as she looked over to Everest sadly who was now looking over the corpses of his parents sadly, crying into their fur and begging for them to come back even though there was no hope for them to do so. Chloe shook her head and walked up to Max before placing a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Eff all of that, okay? You were chosen by Everest and Rachel to help him get home! I know things didn't work out well because of Everest dying in another timeline but... look at what's happened! Zara's finally dead, Jin has become a changed person, and so has Burnish. Yi has finally started letting people in, and you... you got to experience what it's like to be somebody's mother! Everest loves you, and he'd still love you regardless of what happens" Chloe told her. The distraught brunette then reached into her camera bag and took out the Polaroid she had taken of Mt. Everest when they reached the bridge. When Chloe saw it in her hands, she looked up to Max and shook her head.

"Max, no!" said the blue-haired girl.

"What if it's the only way to bring back the other Yetis?" asked Max. She then began to realize this was the "Final Choice" Rachel was telling her about in the In-Between. Travel back in time and allow Everest to die to save the other Yetis? Or allow Everest to live and become the last remaining member of his own species. Yi then placed her hand on Max's and spoke.

"Max, listen to me. I know you feel guilty but this... this isn't the right way to go. If you allowed the events of that timeline to happen, Everest would still be dead. You'd be allowing Zara to win" Yi told her.

"What about Rachel? She'd be stuck in the In-Between forever" Peng piped in. Max had to admit, all these points were very good ones, but she still wanted to find a way to make up for the loss of Everest's birth family.

"But what about Everest? He'll be an orphan and die without someone to take care of him if we don't do something" Max said. Chloe shook her head before speaking to her girlfriend once more.

"He won't... because he does have someone to take care of him. You" she said.

"What? Chloe..." Max was about to continue but the blue-haired girl interrupted her and spoke.

"He already sees you like a real mother. He loves and trusts you unconditionally, and he'll be so happy he's with you and not in a cage living the rest of his life like some zoo animal for people to poke fun of" Chloe told her. Max looked down at the photo and then back at Everest who still wept over the loss of his family before looking back at the picture and tearing it in half before tossing it up into the wind. The two halves flew throughout the sky until they disappeared from their views.

"You're right, Chloe. I am Everest's mother, and I'm gonna let him know he has a home with us" Max said before she walked over to the mourning Everest. Chloe followed closely behind her as they approached their crying fuzzy friend. Once Everest saw Max and Chloe standing in front next to him, he looked into their eyes with tears freely falling down his face.

"My family's all gone, mama" Everest said using his thoughts to communicate with both his semi-adopted aunt and mother.

"I know, and I'm so sorry about your family. But you don't have to live the rest of your life alone like this. Come back to California with us, we'll take good care of you, we promise" Max said in her mind. Everest was surprised to hear this, she was actually wanting him to come back home with them to the country they lived in.

"Y-You mean it?" Everest asked telepathically.

"We may not be Yetis, but we promise we'll be good moms to you. We both love you with all our hearts, Everest" Chloe said using her own mind to telepathically communicate with her nephew. Everest sat in silent for a moment but after he finally finished thinking, he looked to Max and Chloe and nodded with a smile on his face, his eyes still glistening with sorrow-filled tears. The two girls smiled knowing that Everest accepted their offer and got closer towards him, both giving him a loving and comforting hug. The Yeti then wrapped his two large arms around the both of them, returning their hug to show how much he appreciated them taking him in.

"Everything's gonna be fine, I promise" Max said in her mind.

"We'll keep you safe and love you to the end of time" Chloe said using her own thoughts. Everest's heart felt warm hearing his new mother and aunt's words. The hug eventually broke apart, and the three looked over to see Jin, Yi, and Peng staring in worry.

"So... now what?" Yi asked. Max and Chloe then looked over to one another and turned back to face their friends with reassuring smiles on their faces.

"Chloe and I have decided to take Everest back to California with us. We're going to be his new parents from now on" Max told them. The three friends were in shock at first, taking up the seemingly impossible task of parenting an unknown species with the capability of telepathy and controlling the elements, but their looks softened up seconds after Max had made the announcement.

"Good idea. I couldn't think of anybody better suited to taking care of Everest than you two" Yi replied.

"Absolutely. Big guy's definitely safer with you two than anybody else on this planet" Jin piped in. Peng then looked a little sad, but Max walked up to him and got down on one knee before placing her left hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Peng. This doesn't mean you have to say 'Goodbye' to Everest forever. You guys can hopefully visit during the next Summer break and you'll have all the time in the world to play with him" Max reasurred.

"You really mean it?" Peng asked excitedly, his sorrow replaced with excitement and enthusiasm within seconds.

"Absolutely, in fact... I PINKY SWEAR" Max said holding up her right hand and extending her pinkie finger up to the nine-year-old. Peng then locked his pinkie with Max's and the promise was made. After they broke their pinkies apart, Max looked to the others with a small smile forming on her face.

"Come on guys... let's go home" she said happily. The others nodded and began following her down the mountain to break the news to Mr. Burnish. Even though their journey had ended in such a heartbreaking and sorrowful discovery, they couldn't have been more happier that they had taken such a breathtaking and exhilerating trek all across Asia together.

* * *

**One Year Later**

**Santa Monica, California. June 15th, 9:00 AM**

**(Start playing 'Halcyon On and On' by Orbital as you read this next part of the story)**

Max and Chloe were sound asleep in the bed they shared in the large house Mr. Burnish was kind enough to help purchase for them upon returning to the United States. It took a while to find the right house to accomidate a being of Everest's large size, but they had finally found the perfect place. The house was two stories tall, and the backyard lead down to a private beach. The garage was remodeled and restored to become Everest's new bedroom, they had to make the door slightly wider and bigger to help the Yeti get in and out but seeing the look on Everest's face when he finally saw his finished room was worth it. The two had also changed their looked as well, similar to how Max saw their future-selves in the In-Between with Rachel.

"Mmmmnngh" Max grunted as she sat up in bed and looked over to her wife. Yes, Max and Chloe had indeed married months after moving into their new house, and Everest served as the ring bearer at the ceremony while Yi served as Chloe's maid of honor and Kate was Max's. Everyone who survived the storm had attended the wedding, including Warren, Victoria, Daniel, Alyssa, Stella, Evan, Dana. David and Joyce attended as well, as did Max's parents.

"Wake up, Chloe. C'mon, today's the big day" said Max. Chloe then rose up out of bed revealing her long green hair and Illuminati pyramid tank-top.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Yi, Jin, and Peng are moving in today!" said Chloe before springing out of bed to take a shower, making Max shake her head and chuckle at the green-haired girl's reaction.

"I better go wake up Everest" said the brunette before getting out of bed and walking over to the garage. Upon entering, she saw Everest sleeping soundly on his bed made up of four King-sized mattresses covered in the same blue colored bed-sheets and gigantic pillows Max and Chloe had to get one of their neighbors to help them sew and stuff.

"Wakey Wakey, sweetheart" Max whispered into Everest's ear while gently nudging his shoulder. Everest's eyes fluttered open and the two's matching ocean blue-eyes locked with one another.

"Good morning, mama" Everest said in his thoughts.

"Good morning, Everest. Today's the day you're gonna see Yi, Jin, and Peng again, remember?" Max reminded him out loud. Since the end of their journey, Jin and Yi signed up for foreign exchange student programs at their own schools. Peng was egar to do the same as well, and did it shortly after Yi and Jin had told him about what they were planning to do. Once Max and Chloe found out, they were more than happy to help provide a place to live until they graduated and found jobs. A loud rumbling caught both the human and Yeti's attentions and they looked down to reveal it was coming from Everest's stomach.

"Hungry buddy?" Max asked using telepathy. Everest only nodded before getting up out of bed and kicking the large blanket off and began following Max into the kitchen.

"What do you want for breakfast, honey?" asked Max in her mind.

"Pop Tarts! Blueberry!" Everest happily cheered his answer using his thoughts.

"Alright buddy" she replied out loud before taking two pop-tart packs out of the pantry. One was cherry, the other was blueberry. After they finished their breakfast, Max took a shower after Chloe was finished with hers and then put on a black tee-shirt with a picture of a full moon on it and some brown skinny jeans. Chloe had put on a hot-pink tank-top as well as black shorts. Once the two were all dressed and ready to greet their friends when they arrived at the door, they sat down on the couch and watched some cartoons while they waited. After an hour and a half had passed, they heard the doorbell ring.

"Oh! That's them!" Chloe exclaimed before turning the TV off and placed the remote back down on the coffee table.

"I got it" Max said as she walked over towards the front door. Before she reached for the knob, she took in a deep breath and exhaled before turning it and opening the door to reveal Yi, Jin, and Peng happyily waiting.

"Max!" the three of them happily exclaimed before wrapping their arms around her in a big group hug.

"Hehehehehey guys! I'm so glad you're finally here" Max said before inviting the trio inside.

"Peng wouldn't stop going on and on about how exicted he was to finally be living with Everest" said Yi.

"Hey! I was not!" Peng retorted.

"Yeah you were. You rambled the entire plane ride to LAX" said Jin in response to Peng's denial.

"Good to see you all again" Chloe piped in.

"Chloe! Love the new hair color!" Yi complimented.

"Thanks. Everest helped pick it out" replied Chloe as she twirled a strand of her bright green hair with her index finger. The minute they saw Everest, everyone ran over and began hugging their big fluffy white friend whom they haven't seen in so long since last summer. After a short while of watching Everest happily hug Yi, Jin, and Peng, she spoke up.

"Hey guys. I figure since you're already here why don't we go down to the beach?" said Max.

"Are you sure?" Yi asked.

"Yeah, we can save the packing for later. Besides, how often do you get to play with a Yeti on a private beach in our backyard?" Max replied.

"That's an awesome idea!" Jin said in agreement with Max's idea.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Peng excitedly said while jumping up and down where he stood.

"Guess it's settled. Let's go" Yi replied.

"Oh wait! We need drinks!" Chloe said before running into the kitchen and took six bottles of Dr. Pepper out of the fridge.

"Hey Max. These drinks still feel a little warm. Mind giving me a hand?" asked the green-gaired girl.

"Not a problem" Max replied before holding her left hand up. The blue aura began to surround her hand and she emitted a small cloud of frost from her palm, dropping the temperature of the drinks down to the perfect temperature.

"Thanks" Chloe said before handing the bottles to Yi, Peng, and Jin. Max then walked over to the back door and held it open to reveal the white wooden stairway that lead down to their backyard private beach.

"Last one to the beach is a rotten egg!" said Peng before running ahead of everybody else. The others followed and chased after him except for Max who calmly walked behind them and stopped at the foot of the stairs to look out to the beautiful blue sky and then down to see her wife, son, and friends happily playing together in the sand. Max thought to herself how blessed she was to be where she was right now, with a nice house, a loving wife, and that her son was happy living the life he was right now.

"Hey Max! You coming down or what?" called out Chloe.

"Yeah, I'm coming! Don't start playing without me!" Max called out before walking fastly down the stairs and began chasing after Everest and the others. The seven of them happily played tag in the sand and even splashed one another with ocean water everytime they passed by the water. As they played, Max knew she made the right choice adopting Everest, and it was her choice that lead to the life she was living right now.

**(You can stop playing the song now)**

**~The End~**


End file.
